Laying the foundation,
Part 7 - Transmitting God's power Our proclamation this morning
is taken from 1 Chronicles 28:20. These are the instructions
that David gave to Solomon for completing the temple.
They’re in the second person singular but we have applied them to ourselves, so we say them in the first
person plural. Do you understand? That's one of the functions of proclamation
is to make the Word of God personal. We will be strong and
of good courage and do. We will not fear nor be dismayed for the Lord God
our God will be with us. He will not leave us nor
forsake us until we have finished all the work for the service
of the house of the Lord. Amen. Now we are continuing with the study of the six foundation doctrines
listed in Hebrews 6:1-2. We have dealt with the first three:
repentance from dead works, faith toward God and
the doctrine of baptisms. In connection with the doctrine
of baptisms I pointed out that the New Testament tells us
of three distinct baptisms: The baptism of John the Baptist,
Christian baptism and the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Now in this session
we’re going on to the fourth of these foundation doctrines
which is laying on of hands. For a title for this message I have
rendered it ‘Transmitting God’s Power.’ Many of us would probably
be a little surprised to find that laying on of hands is
amongst the foundation doctrines because very little is said about it
currently in most congregations. But if you pause and consider,
it’s extremely logical. It has to be there, because laying on
of hands or transmitting God’s power and authority is the thing that brings
continuity to the body of Christ. It brings continuity between a senior
minister and a junior minister and it brings continuity between
one generation and the next. So the essential function of
this ministry of laying on of hands is to provide continuity
in the body of Christ. In some traditions this continuity
they claim to have preserved from the days of the apostle
Peter until now. I’m not considering that claim but I’m just pointing out that
the reasoning behind it, is logical. We need a way to continue
from generation to generation, from ministry to ministry and this way has been provided in the Scripture by this ordinance
I would call it, of laying on of hands. It’s interesting, we find it
in the first book of the Bible and really it extends from then on through
the whole history of God’s people. It is an essential element
in the history of God’s people. I would say there are certain spiritual
purposes which it embraces. First of all, let’s notice the fact
that, to put your hand on somebody is a natural, human reaction. A mother has a sick baby, who has
a fever, almost without reasoning she’ll put her hand on the forehead of the child. Or, two men meet who haven’t seen
one another for a long time and in one way or another they’ll lay their
hands on their shoulders or they’ll shake hands but they’ll
make contact with their hands. The hand is one of the main
ways that human beings make contact with one another.
In the spiritual context I suggest that there are certain
purposes which are accomplished. First of all, to transmit. In the Bible we find the laying on of
hands used to transmit blessings, authority, wisdom, the Holy Spirit, a spiritual gift or a ministry. Let me just give you that list
once more. It’s used to transmit
blessing, authority, wisdom, the Holy Spirit,
a spiritual gift or a ministry. And secondly, it’s used to commission. It is the biblical way
of commissioning a person for a place of service
in the body of Christ. And as such, it recognizes
God’s appointment. We need to understand that things
in the church are not settled by votes. God is not subject to votes. A lot of churches vote for deacons or vote
for pastors or vote for somebody. That really is not scriptural. It’s God who makes the appointments.
Jesus said to His apostles: You have not chosen me,
I have chosen you. I believe that’s true of every
valid function and ministry and appointment in the church. It’s not
man who made the choice but God because Jesus Christ is head over all
things to the church which is His body. I don’t believe that appointments that
are not made on the authority of Jesus really have any validity.
But, I believe the appointment is not to make a person a certain thing but to recognize what God
has decided that person should be. I believe if you are in a meeting
in a church to discuss deacons your purpose should not be to decide
who you would like to have as a deacon. Your purpose should be to decide
whom God has chosen as a deacon. It’s a very different attitude. We are somewhat corrupted by
democracy which has very little place in the Bible or in the church. I won’t go any further into that
because it’s rather controversial and I don’t have time to get
involved in controversy. Secondly, apart from recognizing laying
on of hands is used to set apart for a certain task or ministry. Thirdly, it’s used to endorse
or to give authority. And fourthly, it’s used to equip;
that is, to transmit the spiritual gift or the spiritual authority
or whatever else is needed by the person to carry out
his God-appointed task. So let me just give that list
again because it’s important. The function of laying on of hands
in commissioning people is used to recognize but not appoint
the persons of God’s choice. It’s used to set apart a person
to a certain task or ministry. It’s used to endorse
a person with authority. And, it’s used to equip him with
all the spiritual authority or gifts that that person will need. Now let’s look at some examples,
first of all, from the Old Testament. We’ll turn to Genesis 48 and read from verse 8 through verse 19
which is a very, very interesting passage. In this passage Joseph brings
his two sons to his father Jacob, who is also called Israel, for Jacob to bless his grandsons. And let me say second
to the blessing of God Himself I think the most desired blessing is the
blessing of a father or a grandfather. I would say to all of you,
especially you younger people if by any means possible,
obtain your father’s blessing on whatever you do.
It is very, very important. It’s second only to
the blessing of God Himself. You will see in the Bible great
importance was attached to a father’s blessing. So here we are in verse 8: Then Israel, that is Jacob, saw Joseph’s
sons and said, Who are these? And Joseph said, These
are my sons whom God has given me in this place, that’s Egypt.
And he said, that’s Jacob Please bring them to me
and I will bless them. Now the eyes of Israel were dim
with age so that he could not see. Then Joseph brought them near him
and he kissed them and embraced them. And Israel, that’s Jacob, said to Joseph,
I had not thought to see your face but in fact God has also
shown me your offspring. If there's one thing that moves me
to tears, it's the faithfullness of God. It’s not grief, it’s not sorrow, but every time I contemplate
the faithfulness of God I’m overcome with tears. So Joseph brought them from
beside his knees and he bowed down with his face to the earth. Notice the respect that the people
in the Bible showed for parents and for the elderly. And Joseph took them both,
Ephraim with his right hand towards Israel’s left hand,
and Manasseh with his left hand towards Israel’s right hand,
and brought them near him. Then Israel stretched out his right
hand and laid it on Ephraim’s head who was the younger, and
his left hand on Manasseh’s head guiding his hands knowingly
for Manasseh was the firstborn. Normally, the firstborn would
receive the greater blessing and that would be transmitted
by the right hand. And Joseph specially arranged that
Manasseh, who was the elder was to come opposite
Jacob’s right hand. But Jacob, prompted by the
Holy Spirit, crossed his hands and laid his right hand on Ephraim
and his left hand on Manasseh. He blessed Joseph and said, God before whom my fathers
Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has fed me
all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed
me from all evil. You know where that happened?
When Jacob met the angel at Peniel that was what he was referring to.
The angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads;
let my name be named upon them and the name of my fathers
Abraham and Isaac and let them grow into a multitude
in the midst of the earth. Can you see also how important
it is to transmit a name? So many of these things are
just going out of fashion today but they’ve never gone
out of fashion with God. Now when Joseph saw that his father laid
his right hand on the head of Ephraim it displeased him. So he took hold of his father’s hand
to remove it to Manasseh’s head. And Joseph said to his father,
Not so, my father! For this one is the firstborn,
put your right hand on his head. But his father refused and said, I know,
my son, I know; he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great. But truly his younger brother
shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become
a multitude of nations. So he blessed them that day, saying: By you Israel will bless, saying,
May God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh. And thus he
set Ephraim before Manasseh. That’s a very vivid scene,
isn’t it? You see, it’s very precise. It was understood
that the greater blessing would come from the father’s right hand. But it was so real that there was a real transmission of something,
it was just not a formality. It wasn’t just for ceremony, it was
a vital transaction in the lives of two young men,
Ephraim and Manasseh. It really determined their
destiny from then onwards. So let us never underestimate the
significance and the importance of laying on of hands
when it’s done by the Holy Spirit. And then we’ll look in Numbers 27, where we find that Moses
was telling the Lord it’s time to appoint
the leader who’s to follow me. Moses knew that he would not
go into the Promised Land but he was very, very concerned
about the people of God, Israel. And so Moses said to
the Lord in Numbers 27:15: We will look at verse 15. Then Moses spoke to the Lord, saying,
Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man
over the congregation. I think that’s significant,
He’s the God of the spirits of all flesh. He’s the God who knows
the spirit of every person. He sees into the innermost
depth of human character. Let the God of the spirits of all flesh
set a man over the congregation who may go out before them
and go in before them who may lead them out and bring them
in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be like sheep
which have no shepherd. And the whole Bible tells us
from beginning to end that sheep without a shepherd will be scattered
and will become a prey. It's a message that runs
consistently throughout the Bible. Let me suggest to you that unless circumstances are very
unusual, each of you should have a human shepherd who
will watch over your soul and care for you - very, very important. We’ll come back to that a little later
as we study some other things. So, how did the Lord respond? The Lord said to Moses,
Take Joshua the son of Nun with you a man in whom is the Spirit,
and lay your hand on him. Set him before Eleazar the priest
and before all the congregation and commission him in their sight and you shall give some
of your authority to him. I like that. Not all of your authority
because Moses had unique authority. But a good portion of your
authority because he’s going to need it. You shall give some of your authority
to him that all the congregation of the children of Israel may be obedient. He shall stand before Eleazar, the Priest, who shall inquire before the Lord
for him by the judgment of the Urim. At his word, that’s Joshua’s
word, they shall go out and at his word they shall come in, both he and all the
children of Israel with him. All the congregation. So Moses did as the Lord
commanded. He took Joshua and set him before Eleazar the priest
and before all the congregation. And he laid his hands on him and
commissioned him just as the Lord had commanded by the hand of Moses. The congregation had to see this
transmission of authority from Moses, the one whom
they followed for forty years to his successor. It was a vital
transaction for the well being of all of God’s people. Furthermore,
it was not just a ceremony something really happened to Joshua. In Deuteronomy 34 we
have this interesting comment. Deuteronomy 34:9. It says: Now Joshua the son of Nun
was full of the Spirit of wisdom for Moses laid his hands on him. So you see what he received
from the laying on of hands? He received the Spirit of wisdom.
It was not just a formality, not just a ceremony,
it was a real transaction. Let’s go to one other example in the
Old Testament which is in 2 Kings 13. It’s the closing scene, really,
in the ministry of Elisha. And yet, it wasn’t really a closing scene
because Elisha died and was buried and then a band of raiders
came in to invade Israel and the men who were going to bury
another just had to dump the man in Elisha’s sepulcher and run off. When de dead man touched the
bones of Elisha he came to life. That’s something, isn’t it? How wonderful it is that God’s power can be transferred
in so many strange ways. Let’s read here in 2 Kings 13:14: And Elisha had become sick
of the illness of which he would die. This is so, what would I say it’s not what you would expect.
He died of a sickness and yet his bones were so charged
with God's power that when a dead man contacted his bones
he came alive. You can’t explain that. There are some thing you can't explain
Let me just tell you something that happend because I’m tired of people trying to
account for everything that God does. In South Africa some years ago, Ruth and I were ministering
in an Assembly of God Church and the associate pastor,
a young man, had been playing squash had fallen and broken
his arm in four places. He came for prayer and I said,
This sounds strange but I’m going to check your legs.
Because this is what God has shown me to do. And if your legs are unequal,
the short leg will grow out and you’ll know that God
has touched you. Then I said, be very careful
to thank God for it. So, you see, when people
have a real need they’ll do strange things
they wouldn’t do at other times. And so he went through this ceremony,
I held his leg, it grew out. I knew God had touched him. He went
back to the doctor and was X-rayed. This is the thing I cannot explain.
There had been four breaks in his arm. Three of them were perfectly healed,
the fourth was still a break. The senior pastor said to me,
Explain that. I said: I can’t explain it. I could say he had seventy-five
percent faith but that would be a very unconvincing
explanation. So, I’m so tired of people knowing
everything that God has done and being able to explain it all. There are
lots of things that God does I can’t explain. I’m quite content to leave them with God. Anyhow, we go on with this story. Joash, the king of Israel, came down to
Elisha and wept over his face and said: O my father, my father, the chariots
of Israel and their horsemen. That was the same thing that
Elisha himself had said to Elijah when he was taken up in the chariot.
And that contains a message, really for all of us. A man who really
knows God can be the defense of a nation. He can be stronger than an army. And Joash, who was not a particularly
godly king, recognized what Elisha meant to his people. Elisha said, Take a bow and some
arrows.’ So he took himself a bow and some arrows.
Then he said to the king of Israel: Put your hand on the bow. So he,
the king, put his hand on the bow and Elisha put his
hands on the king’s hands. And he said: Open the east window,
which was the direction of Syria, the enemy of Israel, and he opened it. And Elisha
said, shoot, and he shot. And he said: The arrow of the Lord’s deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from Syria, for you must strike the Syrians at
Aphek till you have destroyed them. And we find out that he struck
with the arrows three times and three times
Joash defeated the Syrians. Elisha was angry with him because he
should have struck more times. But what I want to bring out is it was the putting of Elisha’s hands
on the hands of the king when he held the bow
that made it effective. Again it’s in the supernatural realm
but it shows that something real can take place when one
person lays hands on another. Now let’s go to the New
Testament and I want to consider the purposes indicated in the New
Testament for the laying on of hands. First of all, to impart
healing to the sick. Jesus said when He commissioned
His disciples to God in Mark 16 verse 16 and following: These
signs shall follow them that believe And the fifth sign was: They shall lay
hands on the sick and they shall recover. In other words, laying hands on the sick
was a way of ministering God’s healing to the sick. In James 5 verses 14-15 there’s another ordinance. It says: Is any sick among you, believers?
Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing
him with oil in the name of the Lord. So that’s similar, they’re to pray over
him, they’re to lay hands on him but they’re also to anoint him with oil. And oil, as I’m sure you know
is always a type of the Holy Spirit. So the oil didn’t produce the healing but it symbolized the release of the
Holy Spirit through that ceremony into the body of the sick person. Now, I just have a suggestion to make. What’s the difference
between just laying hands on or laying hands on
and anointing with oil? I suggest to you,
and this is just approximate, that the laying on of hands
without the anointing of oil was for people who were
not members of the church. But for members of the church the
ordinance included anointing with oil. And again I want to point out to you
that the New Testament indicates that normally every believer
should be part of a congregation for he says, Is any sick among you Christians?
Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him,
anointing with oil. If you go to one church on Sunday morning
and another on Sunday evening, which group of elders will you call for? And, if you don’t have
elders to call for, what will you do when you’re sick? See? In other words, the
New Testament assumes with various exceptions, that a believer
shall be a member of a congregation known to the leadership,
recognizing his leadership and having available to him
the ministry of the leadership. Just let me mention something else.
This is not on this subject but in the book of Revelation,
chapters 2 and 3 there are seven messages sent.
They are sent to seven churches only to the churches. Anybody that was
not in a church didn’t get the message. I feel God wants me to emphasize this. I feel some of you are like
the mountain goats, you’re way out ahead of the herd
and you don’t have a shepherd. That’s a dangerous place to be. It’s humbling to submit
yourself to human authority but God blesses the humble
and He resists the proud. So, you have to choose. There are exceptions, there are
situations where this doesn’t apply. But don’t be an exception if
you should be part of the rule. Now, the next purpose for which
laying on of hands was appropriate is for the imparting of
the gift of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 8 we read, first of all how Philip went to a city of
Samaria and preached Christ attested by miracles and signs, and all the people in the city
who believed, were baptized. So they were saved because Jesus said: He who
believes and is baptized shall be saved. But, the apostles were not content because they knew there
was something missing. So in Acts 18:14 it says: Now when
the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word
of God, they sent Peter and John to them who, when they had come
down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit; for as yet He had fallen
upon none of them, they had only been baptized in
the name of the Lord Jesus. So that is again, as I pointed out
yesterday, a very clear indication that it’s possible to be saved
without having, in this sense received the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
there is spoken of as falling upon them. What I call immersion from above,
a Niagara Falls immersion. Verse 17 says: Then they,
the apostles, laid hands on them and they, the believers,
received the Holy Spirit. When Simon saw that through the laying
on of hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money,
saying, Give me this power. You see, it says there through the
laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given.
And in the next chapter after Saul had had his encounter with
Jesus on the Damascus Road while he was there in a house
in Damascus, unable to see fasting for three days, Ananias,
a mere disciple, not an apostle not a prophet, just a disciple,
received directions from the Lord to go to the house where Saul was,
lay hands on him and pray for him. It says he laid hands on him
and his sight came. He received the Holy Spirit
and he was baptized. So, understand the laying
on of hands is not limited merely to people with a special ministry. In the context of God’s will any person can be directed
to lay hands on someone else. Ruth reminded me while
we were sitting in the office. This is really a rather unusual story.
We were in Kona in Hawaii and I’d been very sick.
I was still far from recovered. We were walking down the main street and a man ran up to us came up to us,
and said, Will you pray for me? I’m sick. I said, What’s the matter
with you? He said, I was electrocuted. If you know what that means,
I mean, he received a full charge he was an electrician. His shoulders were paralyzed. He
couldn’t raise his hands higher than that. So, I was rather reluctant to do it,
in a way, but he was persistent. So we stopped in the middle of
the street right outside a restaurant and we prayed. Ruth laid her
hands on his shoulders. The next day in the devotions
at Youth With A Mission he put his hands right up above his
head. He had experienced a miracle through the laying on of hands. Later on he came to see us when
we were ministering in Arizona and he told us that he had
been to a doctor for a check up. The doctor said, I’ve
examined your shoulders there’s no way possible that you could
ever get your arms above your head. Well, that’s just a little example of
what the laying on of hands will do. Again, in Ephesus. We’ve looked
at this before in another context. Paul found certain disciples there but they
were only disciples of John the Baptist. Paul explained the gospel to them, they
were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus and when Paul laid his hands on them they spoke with tongues and
prophesied. So, laying on of hands is a very scriptural way to transmit
the power of the Holy Spirit. Actually, there are five main
examples in the New Testament and it’s interesting. In two
cases,on the Day of Pentecost and in the house of Cornelius,
it just came sovereignly from God. In the other three cases, that’s
in Samaria with Saul of Tarsus and in Ephesus, it was transmitted
through the laying on of hands. So, it’s a question of how God leads. I’ve had the privilege of leading, literally thousands of people
into the baptism in the Holy Spirit. My particular strength is
to get people to believe that if they seek
the Lord, they’ll receive. I do lay hands on people but not usually. And I can say by the grace of God
I’ve seen thousands of people receive direct from the Lord. We’ll go on now. The next purpose of laying
on of hands is to commission servants of the church,
sometimes called deacons. I wonder how churches
would change if they realize that the word deacon
in Greek means a servant. I mean, in some churches the Board
of Deacons has a lot of authority. How would it be if they were
called the Board of Servants? You see, we’ve got some
of our terminology mixed up. Ruth and I were going
to Pakistan one time and we had to pass through the
examination of the immigration. The man there, the Pakistani
said to me, What are you? Well, it was a Muslim country and I
thought I need to be pretty careful. Eventually I said, I’m a minister. I thought that’s a pretty safe term
that most people don’t understand. From then on I got red carpet
treatment everywhere. I went to the head of the line and so on. I realized later he thought I was a minister of the
government of the United States. So far away are we from the real
meaning of minister, which is a servant. If you are a minister, brother
or sister, you are a servant. A servant of the Lord and
a servant of the Lord’s people. Well, the church had run into
a very good problem in Acts 6, they were growing so fast that they couldn’t take care of
all the poor and the widows who needed their attention. Let me point out to you another thing
about the New Testament church. They invariably accepted
responsibility for their widows. It was taken for granted. The problem today is that the government
has taken over so many functions, that the church doesn’t really
realize its responsibilities. But I still believe the church
has responsibility for the poor, whatever way
that responsibility is carried out. So, the believers came
to the apostles and said: Things aren’t working out right,
our widows are being neglected. So the apostles said,
All right, we’ll take steps. This is rather a crucial situation. The twelve apostles summoned
the congregation and said: It is not desirable that we should
leave the Word of God and serve tables. Therefore seek out from
among you seven men of good reputation, full of
the Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint
over this business, that we will give ourselves
continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.
What is the apostolic ministry? Prayer and the ministry of the Word.
It’s not administration. They said we can get other people
to do the administration. We’ve got to stick
with our responsibility. So they said, choose seven
men from among you whom you know. And, all of
them had to be full of the Spirit. Not even a deacon was
appointed in the early church unless he was full of the Holy Spirit. And this was the
wisdom of the apostles because they were going
to look after the finances. So they let the congregation
choose the men. Then they accepted
the men and ordained them, put them in their office. After that the congregation could
never complain about the men because they were the ones that made
the choice. See how wise God is? So it says: they brought these men and
set them before the apostles... and when they had prayed
they laid hands on them. They were ordaining them.
If you like to say deacons but the word deacon is not used there.
I would prefer to say helpers. The apostles said we’re
getting so busy we need helpers. The position of a helper
was very, very important. And it’s interesting to see what
happened to two of those men. Stephen became the first martyr and Philip became the
God-acknowledged evangelist. So, brother or sister, if you
start in the position of a servant, bear in mind it can be a
stepping stone to something else. In fact, if you don’t
start as a servant you really never will
be promoted by God. Because God only promotes people
who start down the ladder. The next purpose of the laying on
of hands is to send out apostles. I don’t know whether some of you
think there are only twelve apostles in the New Testament.
That is not so. I’ve counted approximately twenty
people who were called apostles. There were the twelve
foundation apostles. Then there were other apostles who were mentioned by name
and we look at some of them. In Acts 13 it speaks about
the church at Antioch, which was in many
ways a modern church. In fact, in some ways it got ahead of the church in
Jerusalem which got a little bit stuck in, what I would call, internal focus. That’s the big problem
with our churches today, most churches are so focused on the
internal that they have very little time for the real job, which is preaching the
gospel to those who have never heard it. But the people at Antioch
had a different vision and this is very important.
Acts 13, beginning at verse 1: Now in the church there were
certain prophets and teachers, five of them are named
Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manaen and Saul who later became Paul.
Now, if you can believe for prophets and teachers
then the way is open for apostles. I’ll show you how. As they ministered to the Lord... The
NIV says: As they worshiped the Lord. It’s so important, I’m going
to speak about this later. But worship is the key to so much.
As they worshiped the Lord the Holy Spirit said, Now
separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.
Notice, the Holy Spirit was speaking as God. Separate to me these two men.
How do you think the Holy Spirit said it? Do you think it was a
disembodied voice that came ? Or do you think He spoke
through one of the five men? You can make your mind up. I believe personally it was
probably a prophetic word. Then having fasted and prayed... And I
am a great believer in fasting and prayer I don’t have time to go into it
but a lot of things in the church will never happen until people
learn to fast and pray. This was the second time they’d fasted. They were already fasting
when they got the message. Having fasted and prayed
and laid hands on them, they send them away.
They sent them off. Please note they didn’t choose
the junior youth director which is what some churches would do.
They chose the two top men. They sent out their best. Promotion to the outreach of the ministry
is from the top, not from the bottom. There again the church has a
tremendous lesson today to learn. The people who are 'missionaries'
or whatever you want to call them are not somebody with a minor
ministry somewhere down the line. They should be the top
people chosen by God. But we have got an altogether wrong
emphasis on our internal structur and we are so absorbed
with ourselves that we really don’t have
the vision of the Lord. I don’t know if you’ll
forgive me for saying this but I say that many people in the current
move of the Holy Spirit, in some countries are like the astronomers
in the days of Ptolemy. If you know a little bit about astronomy,
and I don’t know much. But Ptolemy was convinced that
the earth revolved around the sun. Copernicus came and said, that's
not right. It’s the other way around. The earth revolves around the sun. And typically enough, the church wanted
to put the man to death for saying that. He just escaped with his life. But why was the church so upset? Because it
was contrary to their traditions. I say a lot of Christians are
still living in the age of Ptolemy. They still believe that the Son,
God, revolves around us. They haven’t yet learned
it’s the other way around. We revolve around the Son. Jesus isn’t here for our benefit;
we’re here for His glory. You can see some of
the songs that are sung that focus entirely on
what Jesus will do for me. That’s wonderful, but it’s less
important than what we will do for Jesus. That’s where the emphasis is. Anyhow, this church sent out its
two best. Now, when they were sent out
they were prophets and teachers but if you read on in the next chapter of
Acts, chapter 14, about the same two men, it says at one point: The multitude of the
city was divided. Part sided with the Jews and part with the apostles. In verse 14 it says: When the apostles,
Barnabas and Paul, heard this... So they had become apostles.
How had they become apostles? By being sent out from a church through
the direction of the Holy Spirit. You see, the meaning of the word
apostle is ‘one who is sent out.’ If you’ve not been sent out
you’re not an apostle. So, here are two men who
are not in the original twelve, Paul and Barnabas
are now called apostles. How did they become apostles?
By the appointment of the Holy Spirit. How did they hear the voice of the
Holy Spirit? They were praying, fasting and worshiping God. And when
the church leadership does that then we will see apostles emerging. OK. Now then, the next use
we find in the New Testament of laying on of hands
is to appoint elders. Acts 14:23, the chapter
we’ve been in, says: These two apostles
Barnabas and Paul appointed elders in every church. So the appointment of elders
initially was from the apostles. And then writing to Timothy
who was his representative in the city of Ephesus Paul says in 1 Timothy 5:17
and following He’s instructing him about the kind of
person who should be an elder. He says: Let the elders who rule well be
counted worthy of double honor especially those who labor
in the Word and teaching. Now, ‘double honor,’ if you analyze the New Testament, means
some kind of financial remuneration. The word honor in the New Testament
is not just an empty title, it means you show respect by
the way you handle people’s needs. I said sometimes if you double
zero you still get zero. So, there is a standard
of remuneration and those who give their time
fully to the Word of God have to be remunerated by
the people whom they serve according to the amount
of time they give. Now, Paul goes on about
how to deal with elders. Verse 19: Do not receive
an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses.
Please, that is very important. Do not entertain an accusation against
a man who is the position of an elder unless it’s supported
by at least two witnesses. I’ve seen so many cases when
men of God have been slandered and people have taken up the slander without ever demanding
two or three witnesses. Never do that because one of Satan’s main ways
of attacking people in the ministry is to raise false charges against them.
Here’s the protection. Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it’s supported by at least two and
preferably three eyewitnesses. A great many things in the church
would change if we stuck to that rule. Paul goes on in the same chapter, verse 21: I charge you
before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels that you observe these
things without prejudice, doing nothing with partiality which
has no place in the kingdom of God. Then he says: Do not lay hands
suddenly or hastily on anyone nor share in other people’s sins.
Keep yourself pure. Now this is in the context
of dealing with elders, so when he says do not
lay hands on anyone hastily means don’t hastily appoint an elder. Be very careful that
you have God’s mind. Be very careful that the man has
the qualifications that are required. Because I’ve said many times it’s much easier to lay hands
on than to lay hands off. Once you have appointed an elder
it’s an awful problem to get rid of him if you’ve made the wrong appointment.
So, Paul says to Timothy be very, very careful. Don’t lay hands
as an appointment of eldership on anybody until you’re absolutely
sure that it’s God’s choice. And then he says do not be
partaker of other men’s sins because if you appoint,
if I appoint, as an elder a man who is not worthy, who
maybe will exploit the congregation and the people of God,
I have a share in his sins. So, we have to be very, very careful. I will say, in our church in Fort Lauderdale,
which is not always a model church but when they appoint elders,
believe me, they go through it. I mean, those men - they appointed
three recently - they had to answer questions for two days.
Everything was taken into account. I think many problems result in the church
from the hasty appointment of elders. You see how many lessons come out
of all this about laying on of hands? See, it’s not a little thing. So, what was the purpose of
laying on of hands in all these cases, whether it’s servants or whether
it’s apostles, or whether it’s elders? It’s to transmit authority and to set apart
and endorse and equip a person for service Now, there’s another function
of laying on of hands. Paul wrote to the Roman Christians and
he said, I would love to come to you and impart some spiritual gift to you. But he didn’t at that time go,
he went later. In 2 Timothy 1:6 Paul, writing to Timothy, says: I
remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through
the laying on of my hands. So, a gift was transmitted to Timothy through the laying on of Paul’s hands.
Now the Greek word used there is charisma from which we get the word charismatic. Let me give you my personal opinion,
and you’re free to disagree with me you can still go to heaven -
provided you love me! I believe that the charisma that was
imparted to Timothy there was apostleship because we’ll find that
there are some other apostles. Now, let’s look at
the apostleship of Timothy. Timothy was also an apostle.
Maybe you didn’t know that. I’ll show you out of the Bible. 1 Thessalonians 1:1. 1 Thessalonians 1:1. The letter is written by three men, which
was quite normal in the New Testament: Paul, Silvanus - that's Silas and Timothy, to the church
of the Thessalonians. So these were the writers of the letter.
Not just Paul but also Silas and Timothy. Then in chapter 2 of that letter verse 6, these same men, that’s Paul, Silas and Timothy, said: Nor did we seek glory from
men, either from you or from others when we might have made
demands as apostles of Christ. So all those three men - Paul, Silas
and Timothy - were apostles. You understand, the ministry of
apostles has not gone out of date because in Ephesians 4 God says
He’s put apostles in the church till we all come to the unity of the faith. Anybody with a candid mind would have to acknowledge we have
not yet come to the unity of the faith. So, apostles are needed,
pastors, evangelists prophets, teachers, all are
needed until the job is complete. So, I’ve just pointed out to you
we have now how many men? We have Paul,
Barnabas, Silas, Timothy and... That’s right. So there’s four or five apostles
appointed after the Day of Pentecost. I want to take a little time just to go into
the question of Timothy’s apostleship. Sorry, not Paul's. Timothy's. I’ve pointed out to you
that Timothy is called an apostle. How did he become an apostle? I think this is a very
important question, because I believe we need apostles
desperately in the church. Mind you, I have to point out that Jesus commended
the church of Ephesus because they tried those who said they were
apostles and were not and found them liars. Don’t accept everybody’s claim to be
an apostle, they have to be tested. You know where liars end up?
Do you know that? You don’t know where liars end up?
They end up in the lake of fire. So, it’s a very serious issue. Somebody claims to be
an apostle and is not, he’s headed for the lake of fire. Now, let’s look at this situation.
Acts 16. Paul has started out with Silas
on his second missionary journey and it says in verse 1:
He came to Derbe and Lystra and a certain disciple
was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who
believed but his father was Greek. He was well spoken of by the brethren
who were at Lystra and Iconium. Now one thing that normally is required
for anybody who’s going to hold a significant position in the
church is they have a good report from their own congregation. If their
own people can’t say well of them. what other people say
about them matters very little. Years ago I was in a situation where a lady was sent out to us
when we were in Jerusalem from Sweden as a coworker. My first wife Lydia, who was very sharp,
read through all the recommendations which were many. She said
there’s just one thing missing. There’s no recommendation
from her own church. We took her and we regretted it bitterly. She was a source of many problems. So I really try to master that lesson.
When you choose a person the most important recommendation
is the people that lived with them who’ve worked with
them, who know them. If they can’t recommend them, no
other recommendation is worth much. But Timothy had a good report
from the elders of the churches in which he had been
ministering or living. So Paul took him along and said,
You come with me. And, we read later on we have to follow this rather carefully. In 1 Timothy 4:14 Paul said to Timothy: Do not
neglect the gift that is in you which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of
the hands of the eldership. So my conclusion is that a
prophetic word was given saying: Timothy is to go out with Paul and Silas. On the basis of that prophetic word and because of their
knowledge of his character, the local elders laid hands
on Timothy and sent him out. He received the gift, or
the charisma, of apostleship. That’s how I understand it. Now
you’ve got to balance with that what we’ve already read
in 2 Timothy 1:6 where Paul says to Timothy: Therefore I remind you to stir up
the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. There could be many ways of understanding
that. I think the mostprobable way is in this situation in Lystra when the prophecy
was given and duly tested and the prophecy said Timothy
is to go out with Paul and Silas, the elders said: We endorse him.
Paul said: I receive him. And Paul and the elders laid
hands on him and imparted to him the charisma of apostleship. It’s very important to notice that
the prophecy was very significant. Either prophecy is significant
or it’s a waste of time. In 1 Timothy 1:18 Paul, writing to Timothy, says: This
charge I commit to you, son Timothy according to the prophecies
previously made concerning you that by them you may
wage the good warfare. Now that is a real purpose of prophecy,
it’s to encourage a person who’s going to face opposition and
know that God has really chosen you. I included this little incident
in my book 'Laying on of Hands' and it got here to New Zealand
and quite a well known Christian leader in New Zealand
whose name I will not mention, had a prophecy over him when he was in the United States
that said he was to do a certain task. He got very discouraged
and he was about to give up and he read this and he said,
I’m going to go by the prophecies. I will tell you who it is, it was... This was really one of
the things that got him into his ministry which has now
affected this nation and many others. See how significant a prophecy can
be if it’s given in the Holy Spirit. I have to tell you, friends,
I’m sick of a lot of prophecy. I call it Charismatic fortune-telling. People come in, lay hands on you and
say, You will do thisand you will do that. Maybe, but in most
cases it doesn’t happen. There’s a very thin line between
prophecy and fortune-telling. You know that fortune-tellers can
tell the truth, you know that? In Acts 16 it was a
fortune-telling woman who first recognized who
Paul and Silas were. Before anybody else in the city of Philippi, she knew these were
the servants of the Most High God who show us the way of salvation. And yet, she was a servant of Satan.
I just want to warn you of that. Now, I’ve got to deal, hopefully briefly
with dangers and safeguards. I have only a few moments. Two dangers which
are mentioned. First of all, endorsing someone who is unworthy because when you do
that and you make a mess you’re partly responsible
for the mess they make. The second is what I call
spiritual contamination. You may lay hands on somebody to pray for deliverance
from an evil spirit but you have to know
how to protect yourself because it can be a
two-way transaction. Either you can impart the Spirit
of God or that spirit can affect you. The evil spirit. I remember an occasion
when a group of us still in the army laid hands on a man who was
suffering from severe depression. We didn’t really have the leading
of the Lord, we just did it. We all got attacked by depression.
We hadn’t protected ourselves. So, when you lay hands
on somebody you need protection. This is how, with prayer and humility. Be directed by the Holy Spirit. As many as are led by the Spirit of
God, they are the sons of God. Be protected by the blood of Jesus.
Know how to keep yourself under the blood of Jesus. And bear in mind that Jesus
said to His disciples: I give you authority over
all the power of the enemy and nothing shall
by any means hurt you. Amen.
