The below is a guest post by Mike Law, Jr. Mike is the Senior Pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Arlington in Arlington, VA.  He is husband to his dear wife, Lisa, and father to three wonderful children.  Mike was called to serve as the first Senior Pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Arlington in July of 2009 after having served on staff at Capitol Hill Baptist Church as a Pastoral Assistant and intern.

##########

Over the years I’ve heard pastors apply God’s Word faithfully.  Pastors are often excellent at applying God’s Word to non-Christians and Christians, and yet we often struggle to apply God’s Word to our congregation as a whole.  There’s good reason to work hard at this kind of application, because God intends to display something of his glory and wisdom to the watching world through the church (Ephesians 3:10). 

I’m young in my ministry and I’m learning how to do this as I go.  Yes, I’ve had some training in this area, but I think that I’m only going to learn to do this better as I read God’s Word and prayerfully consider what God is saying to my congregation through his Word.  What you’ll find in this series are my poor attempts to apply God’s Word to the life of my congregation as a whole.  I hope that you (especially you pastors) will be helped by these meditations and encouraged to keep doing the work of applying God’s Word to the life of your congregation as a whole.

Sermon Text: Galatians 1:1-5 (Application from 1:1)

Paul, an apostle - not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.

In one sentence Paul does two things.  He cuts the legs out from under the argument that Christian apostleship comes from mere human men, and at the same time he affirms that his own apostleship comes from Jesus and God the Father.  Here I want to pause and make an application to us as a church.  I’m not sure we have apostles in the church today like there were apostles in the first century church.  I think that was probably a special era of redemptive history where God gifted the church with men who were taught directly by Jesus in order to get the church going.  Nonetheless, apostolic authority still exists in the church today.  What do I mean by that? 

Apostolic authority exists in the church today in so far as it is consonant with the teaching of the Apostles.  And where do we find the teaching of the Apostles?  In God’s Word.  So, as a pastor, I only have authority in so far as I adhere to and proclaim God’s Word.  So if I stop following Jesus and stop proclaiming God’s Word, then you need to stop having me as an authority in the church.  And that goes for every elder and leader we recognize in this congregation.  Authority exists in the church only as it is consonant with God’s Word.

#######

We'll be running a series of posts from Mike on this topic of applying God's Word to God's people. Check back for more posts in the coming days and weeks.