Dennis Tuuri

Deuteronomy 20:1-9. Deuteronomy 20, verses 1-9. Please stand for the reading of God’s word. Deuteronomy 20, beginning at verse 1.

When you go out to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them. For the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. So it shall be when you are on the verge of battle that the priest shall approach and speak to the people.

And he shall say to them, “Hear, O Israel, today you are on the verge of battle with your enemies. Do not let your heart faint. Do not be afraid. Do not tremble or be terrified because of them. For the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to save you.” Then the officers shall speak to the people saying, “What man is there who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it. Also, what man is there who has planted a vineyard and has not eaten of it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man eat of it. And what man is there who is betrothed to a woman and has not married her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man marry her.”

The officer shall speak further to the people, and say, “What man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest the heart of his brethren faint like his heart.” And so it shall be, when the officers have finished speaking to the people, that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people.

Let us pray. Almighty God, you tell us in Psalm 119:2 that blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart. Blessed you are, Lord, great God, for the testimonies of the prophets. We bless you. For the statutes of your law, we bless you. For the gospel of Christ and the witness of the apostles, we bless you, oh glorious God. Grant to us the spirit of your glory and the brightness of your presence that we might read your word and understand through Jesus Christ our gracious Lord. Amen.

May you be seated. Today is a blessed day of joy for myself and hopefully for the members of Reformation Covenant Church, as well as you understand the import of what we do this day and the degree of maturation and development that God has brought this church to. I speak here of course about the ordination of Chris W. as an elder today. It’ll be the third elder at Reformation Covenant Church.

As I was meditating upon this morning, Ecclesiastes 4 came to mind. Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor. If they fall, the one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him that is alone when he falls, for he has not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, they can have heat. But how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him, and a three-fold cord is not quickly broken.

A verse that speaks of the blessing of the three-fold cord. And the blessing that a church has by way of application, that has three elders. And specifically notice that even in that text, we have the idea that there is a person trying to prevail against us. This is a day of joy and of blessing and of rejoicing before God and exaltation. But it’s also a day for sober preparation for the increased warfare that God calls us to enter into.

The text I’ve chosen today from Deuteronomy 20 gives us many application points in it, many truths. It is a sad thing that so many in Christendom today know very little of what goes on in the Old Testament. This is particularly sad when it comes to the idea of Christian office, elders and deacons in the context of the church and what they mean relative to the task and mission of the church.

The verses I’ve just read would have no application to those who strictly believe in New Testament Christianity. I thought of that this morning. I heard the beginning of a sermon that said we’re a New Testament Christian church. And I thought about you know, there certainly is a consummation of things, that our Savior is coming to earth, and a truth that the kingdom has been manifest now in an intensified sense. But there is one word from God. And we’re going to look at that one word today and hopefully draw out some very simple lessons and maybe some other lessons a little bit more complex for those of you wanting a little more than just the simple message that I have today.

So I’m trying to do two things. One, I’m trying to give you the big picture of what the ordination of elders specifically and all officers has to do with conquest. And secondly, I’ve thrown into the outline three excursions. You know, you go on an excursion, you take a trip. So the three kinds of excursions away from the main point, but they’re related to it.

Now children, I don’t have a worksheet for you today, but this is a very simple lesson at its core. The basic idea here is found in the main points of the outline that’s presented before you, those that are in bold. In the context of that outline, they tell us basically the message from Deuteronomy 20 is that the two functionaries—now that’s a big 25-cent word, I know it’s not for little children, but I didn’t want to use the word “officers” because “officer” is a term that’s used in the Old Testament, but one of these functionaries.

So in the New Testament, you have two officers: elders and deacons, in the context of the church. But I use the term “functionary” because I want to draw some Old Testament lessons. The basic idea is that in Deuteronomy 20, you had two kinds of men that God had given as gifts to his body. And these two men then are used by God to prepare the people of God for conquest.

These two types of men—officers of the Old Testament, by way of application to the New Testament church—command the people. That’s Roman numeral number two. And then Roman numeral three, to follow God’s covenant law and grace to victory and the magnification of Jesus.

So in this illustration from the army in the Old Testament, we have two kinds of men: priests and officers. And what they do is they command people. There’s an authority structure here. There’s a chain of command that God has established. And they command the people not based upon what they think is good. They speak to the people to follow and exhort them to follow God’s commandments.

So the law said in this particular period of redemptive history, if you hadn’t tasted the fruit of your vineyard yet, stay home from war. You’re unmarried, stay home. So the people were commanded to apply the law of God as they prepared for conquest whenever they would go to war. And they were commanded by means of these two kinds of men.

Now, this commandment is to equip the people of God then to follow God’s command, his covenant of law and grace, not to defeat, but to victory. The army of God is to prevail. And that army of God is to prevail not so that they’d feel puffed up about themselves or about the church or about the nation, but rather that Jesus Christ might be magnified in the context of the world.

You notice in Deuteronomy 20, he immediately identifies himself in the first verse there: that this is the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt victoriously, triumphantly.

So the main message here, children, is an easy one. Pick a few young boys. You like war. God wants you to like conquest. He wants you to fight, not the way we’re given to fight, usually in our sinful way, the arm of flesh, or against our brothers and sisters. But he wants the church today to be the church militant on earth—an old-fashioned term. He wants us to see ourselves as aggressively pressing forward the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ, who commands all men and women upon this planet and all children to come before him on the Lord’s day and worship him and give him praise and see the rest of their lives as flowing out of the worship of God.

So this is a message that is not heard all that frequently today because by and large the church today is caught in a mindset of defeatism, that we’re not supposed to press the claims of Christ. We’re supposed to snatch a few brands from the fire.

Now, it is true, of course, that the way this warfare is accomplished is through the proclamation of the gospel. We said that over and over in this church. So please do not misread what I’m saying here. But I’m saying that if we look at the ordination of elders, what are we doing today with Chris W. and what’s the significance of it? This text, as I’ll draw out, shows us that the significance is that God has given us now another officer to equip the people for ministry, to command you according to the gracious law of God, to apply that law as you go forward into the rest of your lives, seeing yourselves as part of the church militant, aggressively proclaiming and pursuing the crown rights of King Jesus over every area of life and thought.

So it’s a simple message really. That’s the idea. Now it gets a little more complex because we’re not as familiar with our Bibles as we ought to be. So now we’ll have to go into a few excursions away from the main thrust of this text to explain it.

I want us today, as much as is possible, to understand the action that we involve ourselves in today. That requires an understanding of the office of elder. It also requires an understanding of what ordination is, and we’ll do more of that in the actual ceremony to come. And then what the purpose of this is—you know, just so that we can have nicer sermons. No. The end purpose is this: equipping of the people of God and commanding them that they might aggressively pursue the crown rights of Jesus Christ in every area of life and thought.

Okay. So first of all, the two functionaries of the church—priests and officers in Deuteronomy 20—and I make the case for elders and deacons in the New Testament church. These are the two offices that we’re talking about.

Now, first of all, in excursion, evidence for the two offices, not three. And this is a point of departure that I want you to understand. If you were going to most Reformed churches today and many other churches as well, there’s a distinction made between the deacons, the elders, and then the ministers or pastors. That’s called the three-office position, and we have respect for that position because it did come down from the Continental Reformers. But we respectfully disagree with the position of the Continental Reformers and side with the island reformers more by saying that there are essentially only two officers and not three. That priest, minister, pastor are also terms that are properly used of every elder in the church of Jesus Christ. So we don’t ordain a ruling elder apart from a teaching elder. We don’t ordain an elder today who isn’t a pastor or a minister.

Okay. Now, why do I think this? Very briefly, we’re not going to spend a lot of time on this. I’ve given you the references for your own personal study. But you know, you say, “Well, who cares?” Well, if you don’t think the church has need to be commanded to conquer in the name of Christ, you won’t care. And if you don’t think that the government of the church is subject to the great governor, the Lord Jesus Christ, then it’s not particularly important. You just do what you want to do in terms of church officers: have trustees, elders, deacons, jury, whatever it is. We don’t care.

But the scriptures say we should care because if the church and its worshiping community, and then as it goes out of worship into the world, is so important for the transformation of our culture, then surely the government of that church—if God has given us instructions, and we believe he has—is exceedingly important that the church be commanded correctly and according to the right form of government to accomplish her task. So it’s an important thing to say: how does Jesus Christ tell us to govern the church, as we submit our minds and every thought, take every thought captive to the Lord Jesus Christ?

So I think it’s important we are in very difficult straits as a nation, as you well know. And some of this has come home in a more personal way the last few weeks, which I won’t get into any details, but suffice it to say that this culture has become and is radically becoming increasingly, at a fast clip, anti-Christian. If a Christian person goes to court, he can usually expect truths of the Christian faith to get him in trouble with the court as opposed to getting him a hearing in the court.

And we’ve experienced that in our own congregation here, haven’t we? Those of you who have been here several years, we’ve seen how judges today, even Christian judges, essentially despise a view of Christianity that says, “This is the word of God, and we must obey it.” You hold that position today and go into court, and you’re going to get in trouble with most judges you encounter.

Now, I’m talking in terms of the experience of our church in the last years, in terms of family disputes specifically. And so why does this happen? Why is this going on? Well, I believe it’s a good thing. What are you talking about? It’s a good thing, Dennis? Well, compared to what? Not compared to judges who rule and who govern for the Lord Jesus Christ, but compared to the neutral idea we frequently have today that all views are the same and what we want is a neutral judge who’s not more biased or less biased against Christianity than he should be. That’s kind of the idea, right? And we say, “Why are they against us of all people?”

They’re against you of all people because the Lord God from Genesis, the fall of man onward, has imposed judicially warfare between the two seeds that occupy the earth: the elect and the non-elect. God does not want you ultimately coexisting with the world, the flesh, and the devil. God wants you and wants me and wants the church of Jesus Christ to conquer the beast. And God says that if you will not conquer the world, the flesh, and the devil, you will be conquered by him. You will have stripes laid up on your back if Christian culture, if you refuse to aggressively proclaim and press forward the crown rights of King Jesus over every area of man’s life and thought.

So we moved into a neutral position in this country a hundred years ago, fifty years, whatever it was. And God says, “You know, I’m not going to let you coexist. They’re going to whip you until you get the message that you’ve got to conquer in the name of Jesus Christ.”

Now again, I’m not talking about guns. I’m talking about the preaching of God’s word and the discipling of this nation once more that it might obey all the commands of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is good when chickens come home to roost. It is good when our sins are chastised by God as he brings us to remembrance of who we are as a people. And it’s good for the church of Jesus Christ to recognize that she will either be the militant church on earth proclaiming the crown rights of King Jesus that she is called to be, or she will be utterly useless and trod underfoot by the beasts and those who oppose the gospel and the Lord Jesus Christ.

God wants it that way because when we’re trod underfoot, we tend to wake up and our problems tend to become more obvious to us and we get energized in the faith.

Now, what’s our response then to this mess we find ourselves in as a country? It should be a reinvigoration of church government. It doesn’t sound like it, but that’s what it is, because, as we’ve seen in Deuteronomy 20, it’s the men that God puts in place in the context of a physical army or the spiritual army of the church that equip it for its warfare.

Okay. So let’s briefly go over why I think the government of the Lord Jesus Christ requires two officers, not three. Brief excursion away from the main idea, but important nonetheless.

First, there is no biblical warrant for a third office. First Timothy 5:17, the primary verse that people would use to say that teaching elders and ruling elders are different, doesn’t really say that. It just says that some people have more of a function than another. So first of all, there’s no explicit teaching in scripture for three officers, pastors being different than elders. That doesn’t settle the question. That’s an argument from silence. But let’s go on to see some other evidences.

Secondly, there are only two sets of qualifications for office in 1 Timothy 3. There are qualifications for bishops or elders or pastors, one group. And then there’s a second set of qualifications for deacons. Two sets of qualifications, not three.

Third, there are two functional categories listed. And here I want you to turn to this. This isn’t quite so obvious, perhaps. I’m sure it wouldn’t be, but turn to 1 Corinthians 12:28 to see what I mean. Here we have a listing of God’s giving of gifts to the church. And in 1 Corinthians 12:28 we read, “God hath set some in the church. First apostles, secondarily prophets, third teachers; after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversity of tongues.

Now if we leave out the gift of tongues here, because I think that tongues is an authentic method of authenticating what these ministries were in the local church.” Okay? Don’t want to get off into that. Don’t want to argue with you about that. But I think that when the last item listed here, the tongues, is an authentic authentication of the various giftings to the church prior to the completion of the canon by AD 70.

And if you leave that off, what you have are two sets or groupings of functional categories. The first set are apostles, prophets, teachers. Okay? Those have to do with the ministry of the word. After that are miracles, gifts of healings, helps, and governments. That has to do with the application of the word heard in the lives of individual Christians. Okay?

So there seems to be two separate categories or listings of enablements for the local church that are given here. This correlates to the division of the book of Acts. In Acts chapter 6, the famous passage where we have the ordination of the first deacons, there are ministers of the word and ministers of the table or administration.

And so I think that the second list of activities, after the prophetic gifts are talked about, are specifically ministries or giftings of service to individuals with this final attestation of tongues tacked on to the end. Now I can’t spend a lot of time on that, but I think if you think through what those listings are, you’ll see there are two functional categories listed in the context of 1 Corinthians 12, which correlates to the two functional categories—the apostles and those that waited at tables, in administration, government, administration, helps, et cetera.

So two functional categories.

Fourth, back to the outline point D: the two functions of rule and word are combined. This is quite important. Turn to Hebrews 13:7. You know, this is not some arcane bit of ecclesiastical polity that I’m engaging here. This is real life stuff that’s important for you. I believe that the word of God tells us it’s very important. Look at Hebrews 13:7.

“Remember them which have the rule over you.” That’s the officers in the context of the church, specifically the elders, “who have spoken unto you the word of God. They have a preaching ministry and a teaching ministry. Whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversations.”

Now, later in verse 17, it says, “Obey them that have the rule over you. Submit yourselves for them that watch for your souls as they must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for this is unprofitable for you.”

Now, clearly then 17 and 7 are talking about the same office. And they’re talking about the elders of the local church, the pastors. They have to give an account to God for the souls of the ones entrusted to their care.

Okay? And verse 7 tells us that they have the rule over you and who have spoken unto you the word of God. You see, the rule of God’s people, the judicial ruling of God’s people, or the administrative ruling of God’s people, is connected to them preaching the word of God and teaching you that word. To separate out a teaching office from a ruling office separates what God has joined together, which is that the primary means of rule in the local church is by way of instruction in Christ’s word.

So Christ’s government is manifest in rule and teaching, but they’re not to be seen really ultimately as separate things. Now I’m ruling, now I’m teaching. When you’re teaching, you’re giving the authoritative word of God that allows men to be ruled by the Holy Spirit in their lives. And when you rule in judicial cases, you do it in connection with that same word and you teach as you rule.

So it’s important we think that this two-office position is seen because it correctly combines together the functions of rule and word. In Exodus 18, when Moses was appointed helpers to help in the judicial matters of the church, how did they do it? By their own whim? No. Chris W. will be charged to rule by the word of God. They did it by understanding the word of God and teaching the people under the judicial chair, that same word as part of their ruling abilities.

In Exodus 18, tells us that.

Fifth or sixth rather, the two-office position is foreshadowed in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 1:16-18. Turn there if you would please. We talked about this at our head of household meeting the other night, but it’s important to see it.

Deuteronomy 1:15 says this, “I took the chief of your tribes, wise men and known, and made them heads over you, captains over thousands, captains over hundreds, captains over 50s, captains over tens, and officers among your tribes.” Those are two separate things in one sentence.

But he says he made them heads over the people judicially to hear judicial decisions. And he appointed them officers. Those are two separate historical events in the Old Testament.

The first one was Jethro advising Moses with the wisdom of the God-fearing person that he was to establish God’s system of leaders over tens, 50s, hundreds, and thousands. And you’ll see that repeated throughout Old Testament biblical history. You see it in the priestly order. You see it in the kingly order. Tens, 50s, hundreds, and thousands. Men who rule over those numbers of families or households or men. Okay, that’s one thing that he’s talking about here.

But the second thing, “I appointed judges over you,” refers to the grumbling of the people in the wilderness about their food. The mixed multitude coming out of Egypt—the mixed multitude wanted to go back to Egypt to have that nice, good, well-spiced food of Egypt. It wasn’t great tasty stuff, and they wanted that, and God provided food. And Moses said, “I need help to administer your people.”

And in the context of that food problem involving the mixed multitude, God provided them administrators: seventy men filled with the Holy Spirit, as all officers of God are to be, to assist in the administration of the people.

Now, in Deuteronomy 16:18 and other places of the scriptures, you read that indeed in each of their towns they were to have judges and officers. My point is that correlates to the New Testament church where every church is to have elders and deacons. Elders who do their particular function: teaching and preaching and leading in worship and ruling. And deacons who relieve the elders of the administrative responsibilities that properly belong to men who are gifted, called, and spirit-empowered to do administrative work the way God wants it to be done.

So these two officers of the New Testament are prefigured by the two officers of the Old Testament.

Additionally, only two types of ordination are talked about in the New Testament. In Acts 6, ordination of deacons. In Acts 14, the ordination of elders. There’s only two kinds of ordination, two sets of qualifications, two people in the salutations, two types of ordination, two functional groupings over and over and over. It seems like what we have are these indications of two separate offices, not three.

These two types of ordination then—now what are these officers? They are officers or deacons. There’s an extended section on the outline there, and I’ve given you basically the overview of that. Now I don’t think we need to go into that in much more detail.

But it isn’t just the way I’ve pictured it. Let’s see. It isn’t simply the provision of the seventy in Deuteronomy 1 and then in Numbers 11:16. But there are also in the Old Testament many evidences that these officers, distinct from the judges, perpetuated throughout the history of the Old Testament. And I’ve given you there some things about this particular office in the Old Testament: they were representational, they were found in the time of David and Solomon, they had to do in both the different periods of Old Testament history.

Therefore, in Exodus 5, the same term is used of foreman. It’s not my purpose today to get into the office of the deacon, but those are texts that would tell us that indeed this office of deacon in the Old Testament, one of these two offices that I’m talking about here, correlates to the office of deacon in the New Testament. That is an office of administration, not just benevolences. Not my point to get into that in detail. But that is important for us to see.

Now additionally we also want to say that in the context of these two offices then prefigured in the Old Testament, brought to fulfillment in the New Testament church, this helps us as well see who these elders are.

Now step back just a bit again. What we’ve tried to do at Reformation Covenant Church in every area—whether it’s political thought, the worship of the church, how you govern your family, what the government of the church—every area, we’ve taken a whole Bible approach. One of the problems with knowing what churches do when they ordain elders today is that if all you use is the short Bible, the New Testament, you have very little evidence of what those offices are.

But my belief is that if we take the whole Bible and look at the various officers of the Old Testament, we can see in correlations to these two offices of elder and deacon in the New Testament.

Let me give you a different example. We’ve been talking about sacraments in our Sunday school class for the last few weeks. And what we say is that in Hebrews 9, it tells us there are two kinds of Old Testament sacraments: washings and food and drink. Now, the preeminent washing or cleansing ordinance of the Old Testament is circumcision. The preeminent food ordinance of the Old Testament is the Passover, and we know that circumcision correlates to baptism and the Passover correlates to the Lord’s supper.

Okay? Washing, entrance, circumcision, baptism, cleansing, or nourishing ordinances, food ordinances. Preeminent one is Passover. New Testament: Lord’s supper. But circumcision and Passover weren’t the only Old Testament washings or food or meals with God. There were other ones too. And all those other ones tell us a little more about what baptism and communion are.

So it takes on a multifaceted beauty. These two sacraments of the New Testament being distilled down from a whole bunch of washings. You know, there were leper washings that showed the death and resurrection of two different birds, for instance, that show us that in baptism there’s a union with Christ that’s seen in cleansing us of leprosy and bringing us to resurrected life. One small example. There are many washings of the Old Testament, and they all teach us about what baptism is.

So it becomes a beautiful multifaceted picture. Well, I believe that same thing is true in terms of offices. We have these two groups of officers in the Old Testament. And the preeminent ones that our text in Deuteronomy 20 tells us about is the priest and the officer. Okay? And Deuteronomy 1 says the same thing: judges and officers. But those correlate to elder and deacon. But there were all kinds of other offices in the Old Testament that help us to see how multifaceted these two offices are.

Okay. So now practically speaking, back to your outline. Now we’re on the outline under now excursion number two. The functions of the elder listed by his Old Testament antecedent offices. Big words, just means: what is the elder today? Well, we’re going to look at not just the New Testament, we’re going to look at the Old Testament to see what were these judges and what were the offices in the Old Testament that kind of find their fulfillment in the elder of the New Testament.

And first of all, we want to say the term “elder” means the head of a household and it means an old guy. Some people think the Hebrew word for elder in the Old Testament had to do with a beard. So you could grow a beard, you were elderly now. The old guys run things in the Old Testament and the New Testament because they’re heads of households and they’re trained in how to govern a household.

So first of all, the elder, when we ordain Chris today, he’s not different than a pastor. He’s not different than a minister. He’s an elder, pastor, minister, whatever you want to call it.

Okay, that’s the first point of the first digression. And now what we’re saying is this helps you understand what we expect him to do in the context of the church. What he’s called by God to do.

And first of all, he is called to be one of the heads of the household here. This is the household of faith. It’s a little bigger than your household. Requires more than just one head. Ultimately, the head is the Lord Jesus. Jesus Christ, but he manifests the husband-like, the fatherly oversight of the household of God in the context of being an elder in the church.

So as the elders were the heads of the households of the faith in the Old Testament, so the elders in the church are the heads of this household of faith in the New Testament.

Secondly, they rule in church court cases. In the Old Testament, you had this office of judge. They were judges and they heard cases, and I’ve given you some scripture there. And the New Testament tells us clearly that the elders of the New Testament church are responsible for adjudicating, making judgments or decisions in legal matters that come before the affairs of the church.

So if you’re going to be disciplined, you need to remember that Chris is your head of household, one of the heads of households here. You got to remember too that he also is at the same time a judge, and he makes evaluations, and he’s to make those according to the word of God.

Third, he also has correlation to the Old Testament Levite. The Levites or the Old Testament priests, and that is correlated to the office of elder in the New Testament. What was the Levites’ job? Do you know? We have a job description for the Levites. It’s given to us in Deuteronomy 33.

Very important. Deuteronomy 33. Turn there if you would please.

Deuteronomy 33. And what you have here is a listing of these different tribes, and this is a job description for Levi given to him about what he would do. We read in verse 8 of Deuteronomy 33 of Levi he said: “Let your Thummim and your Urim be with your holy one whom you tested at Massa and with whom you contended at the waters of Meribah, who says of his father and mother, ‘I have not seen them,’ nor did he acknowledge his brothers or his own children, for they have observed your word and kept your covenant.”

The elder is required to not let familial bloodline entanglements get in the way of his ruling for Jehovah God.

Levi did that early on in the context of the twelve tribes. After they took offense for the seduction of his sister, the Shechemites attacked, and Simeon and Levi took violent revenge. But God cursed them for that. But later Levi was tested. Levi and his men, the Levites, said, “We’re going to honor God even if we have to thrust spears through some of those who are our very family members who are idolatrous and adulterous in the context of the worship of God.”

So Levi is proclaimed here to have passed the test by saying the honor and glory of God is more important than the honor and glory of the family. Now the family is a good thing. It’s a great thing. But not when it becomes idolatrous, not when it raises itself higher than God.

So now what does he have to do? That’s the background. How he met the test. But verse 10 says what his job description was. “They shall teach Jacob your judgments and Israel your law.” Double repetition. It’s basically the same thing. They’re going to teach judgments and the law to Israel and Jacob, to the people of God who would rule for God.

“They shall put incense before you and a whole burnt sacrifice on your altar.” And then verse 11 asks for a blessing upon his substance and says that those who are against him may you strike them through.

So it’s very important how you treat the Levites here. But the job description for the Levites was they were to instruct the people of God and they were to put incense and burnt offerings before God in worship. Worship and instruction in the word of God.

And that’s the same thing that’s true of the elder in the New Testament.

In Revelation chapter 8, one of these angels is seen as causing incense to ascend with God to God, mixed with the prayers of God’s people. When the Levite put incense on the altar of God, the priest in the Old Testament, that’s a picture of the prayers of God’s people.

So one thing that Chris is supposed to do here at Reformation Covenant Church, he’s supposed to be a judge. He’s supposed to be an elder giving good fatherly advice and counsel with the rest of the elders. And he is to lead the congregation. The elders in their corporate prayers together in the worship service of God, and he is to instruct the congregation in the laws and statutes of Jehovah, of Yahweh, of Jesus.

Okay. So the Levitical job description is twofold: to instruct the people of God in worship, or instruct them rather in the word of God, and to lead the people of God in worship. And that’s what elders do.

Another big important thing that the office of Levite, finding its culmination in the elders of the New Testament, tells us: they teach and they pray. And specifically, it’s important—I mean, it’s the elders should be praying for God’s people apart from the worship of the church. But understand that Deuteronomy 33 places the emphasis on the worship of God, the corporate prayers of the elders in the context of Lord’s day, special convocative worship.

Remember, Revelation says those prayers do things to the world. Things are changed through the worship service of the church. Yet it really affects how life works.

You know, we’re good Greeks for the most part, and we think that it’s our minds and you know, our abstract ponderings that’s going to change life. No. God says it’s the ritual actions, as it were, of the prayers of his people, the praise of God’s people coming before him that he sees, that he accepts through Christ our mediator. And he then makes it different in the world round about us. He answers our prayers.

You see, the world changes.

So very importantly, Chris is called to teach and to lead in worship with the rest of the elders.

Fourth, he is to guard and nourish. The priest in the Old Testament was a particular type of Levite. And specifically, what the priest does is to guard the bride of God and to nurture her up in the faith. Now that happens in the context of instruction and worship. But it also happens in excluding from God’s presence those who are, you know, idolatrous and against the bride, those who would attack the bride. And so the elders must guard and nourish. Very important. Big theme in the scriptures. That the elders perform relative to the bride of Christ in the church.

And then E, he leads in service and worship. And here the emphasis is on leadership. I talked about service and worship, but in the Old Testament there were these guys called princes—the “nai.” They were the heads. They were the ones who volunteered. When the tough part came, they were the ones who wanted to step forward and take the point as the people of God went forward. That’s the idea here of this particular office.

And I’ve given you references for it here on your outline. I preached a sermon on each of these offices, by the way, some years back. But in any event, here this prince, sometimes translated “prince” in the King James version, he was one who stepped up. You know, he didn’t hang back when a mission was needed, when somebody needed to volunteer for the action. He stepped up. And so the elders of the church are supposed to be men who step up and walk into the gap for the people of God and represent them before God and move forward even in danger if necessary.

Okay. So far we’ve gotten the big picture here, right? That the two special offices of elder and deacon in the context of the church are described by a whole Bible approach that helps us to see what we’re doing when we ordain an elder at Reformation Covenant Church. An elder who is kept from distraction in his ministry of word, leading in worship, stepping into the gap, judicially ruling, acting as the heads of the household at this particular church. He’s kept from distraction from those things by these other officers who are administrative, spirit-filled men who command the people.

In Deuteronomy 20, the priest says, “Okay, we’re going to war. Get ready, and don’t be afraid, because it’s Yahweh who fights for us.” The priests have instructed the people already. This is the law of God. Okay? And then the officers come through and say, “You heard what he said. If you’re afraid, go home. If you’re betrothed and not married, go home.”

You see, so the officers help the people understand the commandments as they apply to their particular lives in the context of the army of God.

So these two special offices or functions of the Old Testament and New Testament. Outline point number two. Major outline point number two: They command the people. They have real authority from God to command the people of God, but only so far as that commandment is consonant, is right, with the word of God.

But as they do that, they work together in teamwork to assist and organize the army of God. They command the people of God to follow God’s covenant law and grace. As I said, it is bounded by that.

Now this commandment of the people of God is to the end that victory might be accomplished. As I said, it’s not so that they would, you know, not prevail in the conflict. It is rather to the end that they would prevail in the context of the conflict.

Turn to Joshua chapter 1 if you would. And we see the same thing, but now not put out in a case law, but as a Exodus tells us, this is what you always do when you go to war. Joshua 1 mentions a specific kind of war in the context of the scriptures and history of God’s people.

Okay, so the first nine verses of Joshua chapter 1 is God telling Joshua, “You’re going to conquer wherever your feet go. That’s my land, and you’re going to cleave to my word. Be strong.” He reminds him over and over and over again: “Be strong in me, not in yourself.” And you’re going forward to conquer.

Okay. Verse 9: “Have I not commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed. For the Lord your God is with you whethersoever thou goest.”

And then verse 10. How is this worked out then? This basic command to Joshua, representing Christ, of course. Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, “Pass through the host and command the people, saying, ‘Prepare you vitals, for within three days you shall pass over this Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God giveth you to possess.’”

And now turn forward to chapter 3, beginning at verse one.

“Joshua rose early in the morning, and they removed from Shittim and came to Jordan. He and all the children of Israel and lodged there before they passed over. And it came to pass after three days that the officers went through the host, and they commanded the people, saying, ‘When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, the priests of Levites bearing it, that you shall remove from your place and go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it about two thousand cubits by measure. Come not near unto it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way heretofore.’”

“And Joshua said unto the people, ‘Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.’” And Joshua spake unto the priests, saying, “Take up the ark of the covenant and pass over before the people.” And they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.

And the Lord said to Joshua, “This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they might know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. And thou shalt command the priests that bear the ark of the covenant, saying, ‘When you are come to the brink of the water of Jordan, you shall stand still in Jordan.’”

The big picture here is that Joshua and the people of God are going in to conquer. They’re going to completely transform the culture of the land they will be called to live in. To the end that might happen, God has appointed special officers in the church who represent the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in the context of the people.

The result of this is that the priests and officers combine together to give direction to the people and organize and manage the people of God for the conflict that lies ahead of them. Elders and deacons do the same thing today.

The elders are the fathers of the church, as it were. They’re the heads of the households of the household of God and its local manifestations. They’re the judges. They’re the ones who lead in worship, who lead in the study of God’s word and its application. They guard the church and they nurture the people of God. That’s their job. That’s what God has called them to do. Without his equipping, it would be impossible. With his equipping, it is indeed the very thing that has happened at this church and that will continue to happen.

The officers of the church, working in the context of the elders, the deacons—that is, equipped the people for ministry by making that application of that truth, seeing how they can apply it in their lives and then organizing the people for the conquest of the land.

The officers then would go through the army and they’d set up squadrons. They’d organize the army of God for the particular sorts and stuff they would do as they went into the land. In the same way, the priests give the direction, the elders give the direction, they lead in worship and God blesses that leading in worship by organizing—