Biblical Eldership Church Leadership

Notes

0 convey healing and the Holy Spirit to Paul through Ananias’s hands (Acts 9217) 0 convey a spiritual gift to Timothy through Paul’s hands (2 Tim. 126) 0 set apart or place in office (Acts 626; 1323; 1 Tim. 4214; 5222) In light of this background, it seems reasonable to assume that the imposition of hands in Acts 6 visually expressed the apostles’ blessing, commissioned the Seven to a special task (Num. 27222,23), and trans ferred the authority to do the job. Because of the Seven’s responsible task of handling large sums of money (Acts 4234-37) and the growing ten sions between the Hellenistic Jews and Hebrews, the apostles knew that the situation demanded an official, public act of appointment. The laying on of hands in Acts 6, however, did not install the Seven to higher ministerial positions (priest or minister), nor did it make the Seven successors to the apostles. It was not ordination that authorized them to preach and administer the sacraments. The laying on of hands did not convey grace or the Holy Spirit, for the Seven were already filled with the Holy Spirit. Rather, the laying on of hands commissioned the Seven to serve the poor and needy. At the beginning of the first missionary journey, the church at Antioch laid hands on Paul and Barnabas: “Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away” (Acts 1323). Despite what leading commentators say, this passage has nothing to do with ordi nation in the modern sense. It is another example of how tradition blinds the eyes of even the best expositors. J.B. Lightfoot, for instance, wrongly refers to this account as Paul’s ordination to apostleship: “It does not follow that the actual call to the apostleship should come from an out ward personal communication with our Lord... But the actual investi ture, the completion of his call, as may be gathered from St. Luke’s narra tive, took place some years later at Antioch (Acts 1322)” (Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians [1865; repr. London: Macmillan, 1892], p. 98). This passage cannot refer to ordination as we know it for the following reasons: Barnabas and Paul were already eminently gifted men in the church (Acts 13:1). The Jerusalem church had sent Barnabas to investigate and encourage the new work at Antioch (Acts 11:22-26). Both Paul and Barnabas were the leading teachers in the church and were veteran labor ers for Christ. Paul was already an apostle—appointed directly by Jesus Christ. No man or group could claim to have ordained him as an apostle (Acts 26:16-19; Gal. 121). Thus, this act was not ordination to the minis try, for Paul and Barnabas were already in the ministry. Instead, the Spirit

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