Ordination of Bart Carlson — "One Ruling Office"

The New Testament Pattern of Church Leadership: One Ruling Office

0:00 This cassette contains the ordination service for Pastor Bart Carlson, who was installed as one of the elders of Trinity Baptist Church on October 8, 1995. This service is followed by a brief communion meditation delivered by Pastor Albert N. Martin. What official leaders, what official teachers, what official guides and overseers are instituted in the Church of Christ by Christ Himself through His Apostles?

0:35 And when we turn to the New Testament for the answer to that question, it really is not a difficult answer to find. For we find the New Testament speaking with consistent simplicity that the pattern which the Apostles followed is the same as the New Testament speaking with consistent simplicity. The New Testament speaking with consistent simplicity is succinctly stated in two passages that we will look at together, Acts chapter 14 and Titus chapter 1. Acts chapter 14, where in the record of the missionary journey of the Apostle and his companions, we read in verse 21 of Acts 14, and when they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed for them elders in every church and had prayed with fasting, they commended themselves, and they sent them to the Lord on whom they had believed.

2:03 And they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia, and when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Atalia, and from thence they sailed to Antioch. And we have no subsequent record that having revisited these fledgling churches in order to confirm or strengthen the souls of the believers, to instruct them that they would enter the kingdom through many tribulations, and having established elders as the abiding leaders, we read no record that they ever made other visits to established arch-elders or super-elders, i.e. bishops or archbishops or cardinals, nor did they ever gather all, or all such people together in order to recognize one who was the unique representative of Christ over them and call him the pope. We read that the apostolic practice was uniform, and it was clear that once they had established elders in the church, they could commend those churches to the Lord of the church and to the one who was the Lord of the church.

Elder and Bishop: Interchangeable Terms for One Office

3:29 one class of office bearers that he had instituted for rule and for government, the diaconate being a serving office and function, and leave them to the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see this again in Titus chapter 1, where the apostle, concerned with the immature and undeveloped condition of some of the churches in Crete, sends Titus to Crete with a special mission. And he describes that mission in Titus chapter 1 and verse 5. For this cause I left thee in Crete, that you should set in order the things that were wanting or lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I gave you charge. And then the biblical standard for the Christian character and for the God-endowed gifts essential for a man to be recognized as an elder are set forth in the following verses. And in the midst of setting them forth, it is clear that the apostle uses, the term elder interchangeably with bishop.

4:54 For having said to Titus, I've left you at Crete to appoint elders. In verse 7 he says, For the bishop or the overseer must be. So in the mind of the apostle, an elder is a bishop or an overseer. An overseer is an elder or a bishop.

5:19 And when we read through the rest of the New Testament, looking for the answer to the question, what leadership was appointed by the apostles in the church of Christ, the answer is consistent. It was a leadership of men called with interchangeable terminology, elder, pastor, bishop. Those who, those, the Lord.

Rejection of Hierarchical Offices and Priesthood

5:58 Never a question that a bishop was an office bearer of a higher elders or lesser officers beneath him. Never once is there any indication that there is a bishop. Bishops who are of a higher than ordinary elders and certainly the word cardinal or the cardinal who staff bishops and ultimately, who has a direct succession of ecclesiastical authority with Peter himself is a fabric. You don't need to be a theologian to come to that conclusion. Pick up your Bible prejudice and you will come to that conviction. Furthermore, you will also come to the conviction that of all of the terms used to describe the one office instituted by Jesus Christ,

7:20 through the apostles in the churches formed under apostolic labors, though a broad spectrum of terms are used to describe that one office, elder, pastor, bishop, those who have the rule, those who govern you, never once are they designated priests. The word priest is reserved in the New Testament, either making a reference, to the literal priests, high priests, chief priests, who were of the old Levitical order, who were functioning in Jerusalem until the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, or particularly in the book of Hebrews, to our Lord Jesus, who is our great high priest and our sympathetic, empathizing priest, or without exception. In fact, it's very interesting that it is Peter himself, the so-called special pope of the Roman church, who designates all believers in 1 Peter 2 and verse 9.

8:41 But you, referring to all people of God, elect race, people for God's session, that you may show forth the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His kingdom. His marvelous light. And therefore, we have a marvelous privilege tonight to meet in the confidence that as we seek to formally recognize the stall office of an elder, a bishop or overseer, a shepherd, one who will rule and be over us in the Lord. Our dear brother, Mr. Bart Carlson, we should do so with a mission that in so doing, we are submissive to the will of Jesus Christ, whose will for the structure and government of this church was established through the unique authority and ministry of the apostles.

The Symbolic Nature of Ordination: No Sacramental Grace

9:59 And we should do so with gratitude that we have not been brought into this framework and position. Which, because they have no foundation in the word of God for their qualifications, therefore, their so-called authority. And so, as this night, in a few moments, three of the elders will lay their hands upon our brother, Mr. Bart Carlson.

10:35 What are they doing? Well, they're conveying any special sacramental grace to him. They are not imparting to him any magic. They are not imparting to him any magical powers that will enable him to change that loaf of bread into something other than an ordinary loaf of bread, even though your sight and sound and touch and taste would all tell you it's bread, that you're supposed to believe that he has exercised these magical powers to make it the actual body and the cup, the actual blood of Christ.

11:12 No, we confer no special grace. We impart. No magical powers. We infuse.

Ordination as Recognition and Commendation

11:19 No special virtue. But rather, as the presently recognized gifts of Christ to this assembly, the elders who will lay their hands upon our brother are symbolically stating the recognition that you, the congregation, have made, judging his character and gifts by the standard of 1 Timothy 3. and Titus chapter 1, that our brother has indeed, in the language of Ephesians 4, been given to us as a church to serve amongst us as a pastor and a teacher in order to help shepherd the flock of God in this place. And as we see the apostles there in Acts 14, laying hands upon people and setting them apart to this task, and Paul, referring to Timothy's ordination, speaking of that ordination, but the laying on of the hands of the presbytery, the laying on of the hands of the presbyters, the elders, the bishops, the overseers,

12:32 we, on your behalf, by laying hands upon our brother, are acknowledging that together we, with you, have recognized him as a gift of Christ and by commending him to God in prayer. We are seeking from the head of the church increased measures of grace and endowments of the Holy Spirit that he may be yet an even more godly man, a more gifted man, a more useful man, that with the conferral of the office may come fresh and increased measures of the conferral of God's grace who never sends forth his servants to serve him. Without making them sufficient for the task to which he calls them. And now I'm going to ask Mr. Carlson to come and stand before you, the congregation, at which time I'm going to ask him several very pointed questions. And then after his response to these questions, three of your elders will come, commending him to God, each one focusing his prayers on the behalf of all of us, on a different path.

13:46 On a different dimension of his life and of his future ministry.

Bart Carlson's Ordination Vows

13:52 Now recognizing, Bart, that we stand in the presence of the living God, before whom you and I and all of us will stand in judgment one day, can you confess that you believe the scriptures of the Old and the New Testaments to be the very infallible word of God, the only rule of faith and of practice? And do you sincerely receive and adopt the confession of faith of this church as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures? I do. And do you approve and accept the polity and discipline of Trinity Baptist Church as embodied and expressed in our newly revised and adopted Constitution? I do. And have you been moved as far as you know your own heart to seek the office of the Holy Spirit? To seek the office of an elder from love to God and from a sincere desire to promote his glory in the gospel of his Son?

15:00 I believe I can say I have. And do you promise by the grace of God to be zealous and faithful in maintaining the truths of the gospel and the purity and peace of this church, whatever persecution or opposition may arise to you on that account? God. And do you purpose by the grace of God to be faithful and diligent in the exercise of all private and personal duties which become you as a Christian man and as an elder in the Church of Christ as well as in all the relative duties and public duties of your office endeavoring to adorn the profession of the gospel by your manner of life with exemplary godliness before the flock, over which God shall make you an overseer? Amen. Now the brethren will come and commend our brother to God on our behalf. Will you join your hearts with them as they lay hands upon Mr. Carlson

Prayer for Bart Carlson's Personal Godliness and Family Life

16:10 and commend him to God in prayer? Shall we pray together? Our Father, we give thanks to you this night again for your kindness to us as a church, for setting aside another man, to be a ruler in our midst. We bless you again for your rule over us and for his rule which will now begin.

16:42 And our Father, we pray that you would indeed be his portion, that you will direct his feet in a plain path. For we read that the steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord. And so we pray you would order his steps in that way of righteousness. Our Father, we read also in your word that a man should also take heed to himself and so we pray that in taking heed to himself, he shall give himself wholly and solely to cultivating the graces which you have bestowed upon him, that he may be indeed a Christian in all its all the meaning of that word, in all the fullness of it.

17:21 And pray that his light and his life shall so shine before men that others seeing his good works shall glorify our Father who is in heaven. Father, those good works of, of charity and of love demonstrated, those works of helps along the way, those works where he orders his family life in such a manner that others shall take note. Father, we pray that you would also help him and his dear wife to be the example that the marriage should be and that of Christ and his church. And so we ask, our Father, that you will indeed bless him and his family as they seek to be all that they should be before you.

18:04 We thank you again that he can then, with the Apostle, say, Be ye followers of me, as I am of Christ. Lord, we thank you again now for bringing him to us and making him part of us. And thank you again for raising him up into this office. Lord, be his portion, for Christ's sake. Amen.

Prayer for Bart Carlson's Public Ministry and Teaching

18:24 Amen. And our Father, as we pray for our brother and the...

18:33 the private life of being a husband and a father, we also pray this evening for his walk among us as one of our elders. We ask, our Father, that you would strengthen him and help him as he seeks to labor among us as one of the overseers of this flock. We pray, our Father, that you would give him direction, that you would give him help, that you would give him wisdom as he seeks to open up your word, both publicly and privately, and that he seeks to lead us in a plain path according to your scriptures. We pray especially for the unique ministry of visiting the sick, and we ask that you would continue to bless in those labors, that he would have a word in season for those in the midst of trial. We pray also, our Father, for his labors in the academy, being involved in the training of men for the ministry. We ask, our Father, that you would strengthen him, that you would help him, that you would enable him to be a faithful guide to those who are in need, not only in leading them along plain paths, but in his example to them of what a godly minister of Christ is. Our Father, we ask that you would be with him and strengthen him and help him and use him for the furtherance of your kingdom in this place.

Prayer for the Church to Receive and Support its New Pastor

19:51 We ask for these mercies through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. And our Lord God and gracious Father in heaven, as we have seen through the scriptures tonight, what is given here, we stand before you and to receive this gift of Christ, it is given to the church. And our God, we see in the scriptures that the responsibility of the church, the charge given to the church, is to receive the gift which comes from Christ.

20:23 And our God, how we plead that you would, by your Holy Spirit, set upon us as this church to receive this gift coming from Christ. The scriptures say we are to submit to him, that we are to see and know what his task is among us, that we are to do all that we can to help him and to aid him in his labors. Our Father, we pray that we will be able to express the love which should be expressed towards him, knowing that he is Christ's gift to us, to care for us. Lord God, we pray that this does not be a formal thing and it's something that's done here before the people, but not done.

21:05 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

21:05 Amen. Amen. Amen. So may, O God, you would cause us to be able to express true love to this, our new pastor.

21:14 May it be, O God, we can be able to submit ourselves to him, listen to him as he brings the word of the Lord Christ to us. May it be, O God, when he comes to us in order to give us that word of exhortation, of even rebuke, that we can sense Christ speaking through his servant. And, O Lord, may we do all that we can to aid him in his labors. May we do all we can, O God, to strengthen him and to make his work even easier.

21:44 May we express our love to him doing everything that we can with our lives, with all that we have, and even with our prayers. So, Lord God, guide us and teach us and give us the grace needed to be the church that will receive the gift coming from Christ. Hear our cries, O God, as we bring them to you. Through Christ, our Lord Jesus Christ, and as we thank you for the gift given to us, in Christ's name we pray.

Concluding Remarks and Offering

22:13 Amen. Amen. We are thankful that because of the open-heartedness and spirit of generosity that you, the Lord's people, continue to manifest, that our brother will be able to be one who, laboring in the gospel, will live of the gospel, and it is your weekly gifts and offerings to the Lord that enable a number of us to be set apart for that task. And so, at this time, we will be privileged once again to worship the Lord in the giving of the evening offering. Will the brethren please come and assist us? Please turn this cassette over to continue the message.