The False Doctrine of Top-Down Authority and Honorific Titles (91)

Today on The UnSunday Show, I want to talk to you one more time about the use of honorific titles and top down authority within the body of Christ.  This is an important topic to come back to, so let's explore it a little bit further. 

Hello friends, Mike Adams here with The UnSunday Show.  Today, I want to talk to you a little bit more about top down authority within the body of Christ, the hierarchy of top down authority, and the use of honorific titles. We've talked about this in the past a lot, but today I want to delve into it a little bit further. I want to go a little bit deeper into it with you and draw some conclusions about this. So, let's get started.  

In Matthew 23, Jesus talks to His followers and the disciples about the use of honorific titles within the assembly. And I want to pick this up in Matthew 23, starting in verse 1, just so we get it in context. I'm going to read this to you. In verse 1, it says,
 
“Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples, saying, The scribes and Pharisees have seated themselves In the chair of Moses.  Therefore, whatever they tell you, do and comply with it all, but do not do as they do, for they say things and do not do them. And they tie up heavy burdens and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as their finger. And they do all their deeds to be noticed by other people, for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments, and they love the place of honor at banquets.” 

Now, let's stop right there for just a moment. This is Jesus’ summary of the religious leaders of His day.  He says that they have seated themselves in Moses’ seat, or Moses’ chair, and so do what they tell you to do. The disciples were still under the law at this point in time. Jesus wasn't telling them to break the law. He was saying do what they say to do, but don't be like them. Don't do what they do. In other words, he is really going to the heart of the matter here in all of chapter 23, which we're not going to read. But you can read it on your own, and you can see where Jesus takes this. 

These religious leaders of Jesus day were hypocrites. They were all about outward appearance. They were all about prideful appearance. And so Jesus said, do what they say, but don't do what they do because of their hypocrisy.  And then he talks about how they like to broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. In other words, elaborate religious clothing. And they love the place of honor at banquets and the seats of honor in the synagogues. 

Now, just a personal word right here, going back several years. Early on when I was a pastor, we had chairs on the stage. I don't know if you have that same thing. Maybe where you're going right now, if you go anywhere at all, you’ve got that same problem or that same setup. We had these special chairs and we would go sit in those chairs up on an elevated platform during the preliminary stuff that went on in the service. And so we're up there kind of staring at the people and they're staring at us and we've got these seats of honor, these places of honor in front of them.

And so this sounds really familiar to me in that regard. But I think back to that, and I think, boy, how, how did I do that? How crazy is that? How ridiculous is that, that I would sit up there in this special seat, this special chair, thinking that it was some kind of a place of honor, and that I belong there, while all of the lowly laity sitting down there looking at me and looking at us were anticipating these words of wisdom coming from our lips.

And again, maybe in your environment you see some of the same stuff. I certainly was there for a couple of years before I just got so uncomfortable with it I couldn't do it anymore, and we ended up getting rid of the chairs. But this is similar to how the scribes and Pharisees were of Jesus day.  They loved the seats of honor.

They loved to be called rabbi or teacher in public places. They loved that recognition. It set them apart. This was like the clergy/laity thing, you know, back in the old covenant,  although the clergy/laity thing didn't exist back then. It's similar to that in that there was this hierarchy and there were these holy people that couldn't be touched or couldn't be mingled with, but they had special clothing. They had special garb that they wore and you had to address them with honorific titles.  

But then look what Jesus says in verse 8: “But as for you, do not be called rabbi,  for only one is your teacher, and you are all brothers and sisters.  And do not call anyone on earth your father, for only one is your father, he who is in heaven.”

And then verse 10, “And do not be called leaders, for only one is your leader, that is Christ.  But the greatest of you shall be your servant.  Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.” And again, that's Matthew 23,  verses 1 through 12. 

And so here's some important concepts that Jesus is talking about here, that among the body of Christ, among the ekklesia, among the assembly or the congregation of believers. There's to be no use of honorific titles to separate us from them.

This is a directive from the Lord himself concerning the body of Christ. And he is telling the disciples, instructing the disciples to stay away from honorific titles because they divide. Because they bring attention to the individual instead of to the Christ. And when we're assembled together in the body of Christ, when we're gathered together, there is only one leader. That is Jesus. 

And we all have the Spirit of Christ within us leading us.  So much so that John the Apostle said that we don't have need for anyone to teach us because we all have an anointing from the Holy One. In other words, there's a very real sense in which the Holy Spirit is leading each one of us deeper into truth.

That doesn't mean that we shouldn't listen to good teaching, teaching that exalts the finished work of Jesus over and above our own works. That's not what that means. There are teachers within the body of Christ. There are those with the gift of teaching.  When it gets right down to it, we've all got the same Holy Spirit, and no one has more anointing than anyone else within the body of Christ.

We all have an anointing, and in that sense, the Holy Spirit is our resident teacher. He's taken up residence within each one of us, and He alone is our resident teacher. Ultimately, that's where the buck stops. But these directives of Jesus to the disciples and those around him who are listening are very clear.

Again, in verse 10, he says, “Do not be called leaders, for only one is your leader, that is Christ.” Your version might say, Do not be called masters. Or to not be called teachers, but the idea is the same, that Jesus is saying there is no hierarchy, and we don't need honorific titles to display the hierarchy because there isn't one. 

And then he concludes in verse 11 by saying, “But the greatest of you shall be your servant,  and whosoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.” That verse reminds me of the words of John in 3rd John, the epistle of 3rd John. You know, we've got the gospel of John, and then we've got the three little Johns, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John near the end of our New Testaments.

And in 3rd John, which is only one chapter, there was a guy named Diotrephes in the group that John was writing to. And Diotrephes was stirring things up. He was causing some problems. Do you remember him? Let me read to you from 3 John, starting in verse 9.  John says, “I wrote something to the church, that is, the ekklesia,  but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not accept what we say.

“For this reason, if I come, I will call attention to his deeds which he does, unjustly accusing us with malicious words, and not satisfied with this, he himself does not receive the brothers either. And He forbids those who want to do so. And puts them out of the church, out of the ekklesia.” This guy was trying to put people out of the church who disagreed with him.

Why? Because he loved the preeminence. He loved being the center of attention. But in the body of Christ, there is only one who has the preeminence. Paul wrote that in Colossians, didn't he? That Jesus has the preeminence in everything. He himself is the head of the ekklesia and no one else, and he's not sharing that responsibility.

He's not sharing that job. It's not an open thing. It belongs to Jesus and Jesus only. And John is addressing this problem with this guy named Diotrephes, whom John says loves the preeminence. Or, he loves to be first among the brothers. So much so that if someone disagrees with him, he's trying to kick them out.

And that's interesting. That's interesting because in a future episode here on the UnSunday Show, we're going to return to the topic of church discipline. And at that point, we'll delve into this verse a little bit more and see what it has for us. But it's interesting that this guy, Diotrephes, who loved the preeminence, who wanted to be first, who wanted to be everything Jesus said don't be, was also doing what we might call today excommunication.

And John says, that is wrong. And when I get there, John says, I'm going to have a talk with him. I'm going to address this if I'm able to come there. Now, that would have been interesting. It would have been interesting to find out if John ever made it there. And then to be a fly on the wall and to listen to that conversation. And so here's an example of a guy who was doing what Jesus said don't do in Matthew 23. 

But there's another layer to this. In addition to the honorific titles that separate us and them, that seem to make this clergy/laity thing a reality, even though it's not. In addition to using these honorific titles, there's also the issue of top down authority within the ekklesia, within the body of Christ.

What do we see today in most churches? We see a hierarchy of top down authority. We have the executive pastor over the senior pastor over the other pastors, over the youth pastor, over the worship pastor, over the social media pastor, which I really never understood that one, but that's just me. But we have this hierarchy of things going on, and associated with that is the use of honorific titles to make sure that the hierarchy stays in place instead of just realizing that we're all together in this, that there is no hierarchy, there is no chain of authority within the body of Christ, but we all have this anointing from the Holy One. 

But that doesn't fly in today's modern church, does it? That doesn't work. That doesn't work because the church at the end of the day, the institutional church has to survive. And the way that it survives is to bring to bear the idea that there is this authority structure within it and that everyone must submit to it. And we've been in this authority system, this authoritative top down system for so long that we think it's legitimate. We think that it's real. And most of us don't question it, and those of us who do question it get labeled as troublemakers.

But really, I think the problem goes deeper than that. I don't think we're the troublemakers, I think the ones ignoring the words of Jesus are the troublemakers. Would you agree, or would you disagree?  Well, let's talk about top down authority, and let's talk about hierarchy for just a minute. And we'll put this as another layer to this discussion. 

I'm going to return back to the book of Matthew, and I'm going to start this time in Matthew chapter 20 and beginning in verse 20. This is a familiar story, but I'm going to read this.  It says in Matthew 20 verse 20, “Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus with her sons. Bowing down and making a request of Him. And He said to her, ‘What do you desire?’  She said to Him, 'Say that in your kingdom these two sons of mine shall sit one on your right and one on your left.’ But Jesus replied, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?’ They said to him, ‘We are able.’ He said to them, ‘My cup you shall drink, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.’”

So here's what's going on here. The mother of the sons of Zebedee, that's James and John, if you're wondering who that is. The mother of James and John came to Jesus and said, Let my sons sit in a place of honor with you. Let them sit in a place of hierarchy with you. Let them sit in an authoritative place with you, alongside you, in the kingdom.

In other words, put them in a position of authority alongside you so that they can rule with you over the others. And Jesus said, you don't really understand what you're asking because that's not what the kingdom is all about. That's not what the kingdom of heaven is about. It's not about hierarchy. It's not about authority.

It's not about exercising authority over someone else. That has nothing to do, that has no business in the kingdom of heaven, in the kingdom of God. We know that because the story continues in verse 24: “And after hearing this, the other ten disciples became indignant with the two brothers.” They got ticked off.

They heard what was going on here, and they got angry over it. But in verse 25, we're told, “Jesus called them to himself and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles domineer over them, and those in high position exercise authority over them.  It is not this way among you,  but whoever wants to become prominent among you, And whoever desires to be first among you shall be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.’”

Wow, what a deal. Here's the mother of James and John wanting to set up a hierarchy within the kingdom. Jesus response is that no, it doesn't work that way. That's what the Gentiles do. That's what the culture does. That's what the world around them does, is they have this hierarchy. They have this hierarchy of authority and structure and of authority and submission.

But Jesus said very clearly, it is not this way among you.  What part of that don't we understand? What part of that don't we believe? It is not this way among you. And yet look around us. Within the modern institutional church, that's exactly what it is.  There is a hierarchy within churches, within institutional churches that cannot be denied.

It's there, and it's blatant. And it is in direct opposition to Jesus directive that it shall not be so among you.  And so we've violated two things in our institutional Christianity, haven't we? We've got this hierarchy established, this top down authority established that Jesus said no, don't do that. And then to reinforce it and to ensure that it works correctly, we've employed the use of honorific titles.

to make sure that there's this separation between us and them, and that people realize that the us, the ones with the honorific titles, are the ones in charge, and everyone else is to submit to what we say, submit to what we do, and if you don't, if you fail to, we're going to kick you out, and so it's the Diotrephes effect, is what I like to call it.

But, again, I ask, what part of “it shall not be this way among you” don't we understand?  What in that phrase, don't we understand?  We've been handed this hierarchy from church history, which started with pastors putting other pastors in charge so that they could keep this make-believe authority over us and force us to submit to what they say, and if we don't, there's this threat of excommunication.

It's a false system. It's a broken system. It's a system of rewards for compliance and punishment for noncompliance. And clearly, this is not what Jesus has in mind, is it? This is not part of the joy that was set before Him when He endured the cross, despising its shame. Because in the body of Christ, to be prominent means you're a servant.

It means you're there to serve. Not to exercise authority as the world does. You know, this is exactly what we've done in our culture, at least here in the West, is we've taken this model from our surrounding culture, our surrounding culture of chief executive officer within a corporation, and we've brought it into the church, and we've Christianized it, haven't we? 

We've changed the title from CEO to some sort of pastor. And we'll usually put some kind of honorific title in front of the word pastor. But remember, and if you've been around The UnSunday Show for any length of time, you already know this, that the word pastor in relation to the body of Christ only appears one time in the New Testament, in Ephesians chapter 4,  I believe verse 11.

And Paul just throws it out there. He doesn't explain it. He doesn't put any parameters around it. He doesn't say what this person is all about, what this person is supposed to be doing. He just throws it out there. But man, we've taken that thing, and we've turned it upside down. And we've said, okay, this is the hierarchy. This is what we need. And so instead of a CEO, we'll have the executive pastor.  

But what if I told you that there is no such thing as an executive pastor? What if I told you there is no such thing as a senior pastor?  What if I told you there's no such thing as a youth pastor? What if I told you there's no such thing as a worship pastor? 

We don't need a worship pastor because we have the Holy Spirit living in us. He is going to lead us into worship. He is going to guide us into all truth, and we don't need someone else in the way helping him to do that because what that's going to do is just prevent him from doing that. It's going to hinder, not help. 

Because, again, it's a system of compliance, and if you don't comply, if you don't submit and comply, there's going to be punishment.  But that's not how the body of Christ works. I mean, Jesus’ directives here that we just read are evidence of that. This has no place within the body of Christ. This is not neutral.

To have top down authority and the use of honorific titles is not neutral. It's harmful, and it goes against the directives that Jesus gave concerning His ekklesia, concerning the congregation, concerning the assembly.  And I've truly come to believe that to think otherwise, to teach otherwise, is false doctrine. 

It's false teaching. It's a false doctrine of top down authority. It's a false doctrine of honorific titles. So let's call it what it is. It's false teaching, it's false doctrine, because it is in direct opposition to Jesus directives for the ekklesia, for the body of Christ. And so, I don't know about you, but I'm ready to call it what it is and to just kind of let it lie there.

What do you think? What are your thoughts on it? In so many instances, there's been so much damage done to people's lives through this top down authority that something needs to be said about it. It needs to be brought up. It needs to be talked about openly and honestly.  Even in institutional church settings where there isn't any kind of abuse going on, the one pastor top-down authority thing is detrimental to the body of Christ functioning.

It throws a wet blanket on the priesthood of all believers. It doesn't allow that to happen. We've got one guy or one gal up front telling us what to do, what to believe, and how to read our Bibles or whatever the topic is on any particular week and the high point of our week is the sermon. And of course, the sermon is brought to you by the executive pastor or the lead pastor or the senior pastor or someone with an honorific title, and it usually has nothing to do with what's going on in my life. 

Have you ever walked into an institutional church setting and the sermon begins and we're told, okay, today we're going to be in Leviticus chapter 3 because we're going verse by verse through the entire Bible. And I'm thinking, what does Leviticus chapter 3 have to do with my life at all? I'm over here struggling. Maybe I found out I have cancer. Maybe I, maybe someone in my family is dying or has died. What does this have to do with me? 

It has nothing to do with me. But since we're in this top down authority system, we have to submit to it and go through it and endure it. Because that's what's on the agenda, that's what's in the program, and that's what we're doing.

But the whole sermonizing thing and the whole centrality of the sermon also takes away from the priesthood of all believers, from every believer functioning within the body of Christ, from every believer using their gifts every time that we're gathered together. It doesn't happen. It can't happen in that setting.

And that setting is one of top down authority and honorific titles, for which, again, Jesus said more than once, it shall not be this way among you. And so I think in a very real sense, we're denying what Jesus said in our institutional church settings, and we need to call it what it is. It's false teaching. 

It's false teaching that has gone on for so long that we think it's legitimate. And we don't know what to do. We don't think it through. We don't think that, well, maybe we should address this, and maybe we should rethink it, and maybe we should jettison this broken system.  And rebuild it, starting with the Bible and nothing else.

Maybe we rebuild it starting with the Holy Spirit in us and nothing else. But we don't think in those terms. It doesn't occur to us to even think about that, because again, it's a system of rewards for compliance and punishments for non compliance. And we think that people have some kind of authority over us within the body of Christ.

But listen, within the body of Christ no one has any more authority over you than you allow them to have. If you say no, if you say, I'm not going to participate in this, I'm not going to allow you to rule over me, then that false authority structure begins to crumble  and you're going to get in trouble for it. But it's going to crumble because now you can't be controlled by this system that shouldn't be in place in the first place. 

So that's really what I wanted to talk about today. I really think that this is a false system. I think it's a system of false doctrine, of false teaching, and it does harm to the body of Christ on many, many levels.  

Hey, before I let you go, I want to talk about my UnSunday YouTube channel real quick. A lot of you follow my YouTube channel. And those of you that do, you've probably noticed some changes in the last few days. Here's what's going on. 

For a long time, I had to manually put these podcast episodes on YouTube. In other words, when I would do my podcast, I would post my podcast. My podcast hosting company doesn't automatically post to YouTube. And so I would have to turn this audio thing into a video, which is really just audio anyway. I mean, I'm not on it. I'm not showing my mugshot on there much. But you still had to turn it into a video, even though it was still audio. That was a manual process. And sometimes it would be days after I posted a podcast episode before I could get something posted on YouTube. 

Well, more recently, YouTube has now supported podcasting. And so I was able to upgrade my YouTube channel, my UnSunday Show YouTube channel, to go grab all of my podcast episodes automatically. So I don't have to do this double posting thing anymore. And so if you're following my YouTube channel, you've probably noticed that all of a sudden things are reposted and it looks a little bit different and some of the old videos that were there are gone now. But they're still there because they've just been replaced by my podcast episodes that now are posted automatically. 

So that's a long way of saying that I've upgraded my YouTube channel to automatically post these podcasts so that I don't have to double post anything anymore. And to me, that's a huge time saver.

So if you're not familiar with my YouTube channel, you can go check it out. It's youtube.com slash UnSundayShow. I think. I think that's what it is. I'll make sure, and I'll have that in the description of this episode in case you want to go check it out. There's also some short sound bites that I'm putting out there now, and there will be some more video shorts coming soon.

So I wanted to give that update for those of you who do follow The UnSunday Show on YouTube. That explains the recent changes that you've no doubt seen there. 

So, hey, I'm going to let you go. Thank you so much for joining me again on this episode of The UnSunday Show. And until next time, y'all take care.