Read Core Values: Being Gospel-Centered Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6
Our First & Second Core Values
Gospel-Centered: We believe Jesus Christ is the central purpose of all Scripture, Christian discipleship, and the substance of both the Old & New Covenants. As a Church, we seek to teach the Scriptures as the whole counsel of God. The method of teaching we use in our public worship, in general, is expositional preaching with the Gospel as the lens.
Church-Oriented: We believe that God calls all believers to live in and submit to the governance of a local church. It is in the church that believers should build their most intimate relationships, seek guidance and wisdom for life decisions, and be held accountable to walk in the truth revealed in sacred Scripture.
Church-Oriented Part 1
In American elementary schools we teach our children about the Separation of Church and State. We believe in the separation of the “powers” of the Church and State. That of course, assumes “the Church” has a type of “power,” doesn’t it–a legitimate power granted from God? Of course it does. Solomon’s Porch Christian Church wants to re-invest the Church with “legitimate power” in her local visible expression. Why? We believe that every Christian is “to live in and submit to the governance of a local church.”
What is the Church?
What is the Church? The roots of the Christian Church are in the Jewish Synagogue. The Jewish synagogue was a local visible expression of Judaism. They gathered on the Sabbath to hear the word of God read and taught, generally by a Levite, to pray, and to chant the Psalms of David. In the Greco-Roman world it was the center of Jewish life. When we say the center of Jewish life, we mean that the elders of the Jewish people in that region ruled from there.
Authority In The Ancient World
Have you ever asked, “How Saul of Tarsus had power to arrest Hebrew Christians in Damascus–the capital city of Syria–another country? The ancient world, indeed even the early modern world, had a different view of national authority and citizenship than the average American today. The king of Syria did not consider the Hebrews living in his jurisdiction part of his family or tribe, and therefore not under his “domain.” They were foreigners. He owed them nothing. They could sell their goods in the bazaars, but they did not have access to Syrian infrastructure. They could not use the courts to settle their affairs. If there were schools, their children could not attend them. Hebrews arrested as criminals had no rights. They would meet a swift execution without a trial.
Setting aside criminal affairs, who administered their civil affairs? For instance, who would settle cases of fraud, record marriages, divorces, and deaths for the Hebrews living in other countries? Where could their children go to get an education? The Hebrew people in every region handled them all through the synagogue–the local church of the Old Testament.
Politeums
The Romans had a word for the arrangement described above. They said the Hebrews living in Syria or in any country not their own, were a politeum–a small political unit that was an extension of Israel not Syria. The term “politeum” described any foreign people group living in a country where they could not be citizens. They remained under the authority of their ethnic king. That is how Saul of Tarsus had letters giving him authority to bind Hebrew-Christians living in Syria. The important word in the phrase Hebrew-Christian being Hebrew. Syrian Christians were under the king of Syria, Saul would have had no power to arrest them.
Politeums were tight knit ethnic groups that formed neighborhoods or districts in whatever city they dwelt. In America we still see remnants of old world politeums in San Fransisco’s China town or New York’s Little Italy. Origianlly, foreigners did not have good access to infrastructure in the United States due to prejudice. So they formed unofficial internal governments and handled their own affairs. Until very recently in history the host country turned a blind eye.
Politeums Are Colonies
We call politeums “colonies.” The Jews living outside Israel in the Greco-Roman world formed Hebrew colonies with the synagogue as the center of their life together. The synagogue was a place of worship and instruction, yes, but it administered civil justice and supplied a broader education as well. Remember,the Church is founded on the synagogue system and is a colony too. However, the Church is not a colony of Old Testament tribal Israel. She is a colony of the New Testament’s “Israel of God (Galatians 6:16).” The Church is to be the center of life for the Christian just as the synagogue was for the Hebrew.
Churches & Synagogues
Why do I say the synagogue forms the foundation of the Christian Church? A casual reading of the Book of Acts shows the Apostle Paul on all three missionary journeys going to the synagogue first to deliver his message. He remains within it as a teacher for as long as they allow. When the Hebrews cast him out, as they did in Ephesus, he rented the Hall of Tyrannus and founded a Church that would, over the following two years, reach all of Asia Minor (Acts 19:1; 8-10).
Did Paul teach that the church was the center of worship and civil life for the Christian? I am going to assume we agree that the Church is the center of worship life, so let’s turn our attention to the civil. In First Corinthians 5 Paul teaches the Church in Corinth how to excommunicate a brother who is living in unrepentant public-scandalous sin. In First Corinthians 6 and Matthew 18 Jesus teaches us how we are to handle cases of civil fraud–times when we believe a brother has sinned against us.
1 Corinthians 6:1-8
“When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? 2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? 3 Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!
4 So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? 5 I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, 6 but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? 7 To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?8 But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers!”
Matthew 18 addresses situations that do not involve scandalous public sin but rather begin privately, then move to semi-public, and finally become public if necessary.
Matthew 18:15-20
15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
Binding On Earth
Two chapter earlier, in Matthew 16, Jesus gives the keys to the kingdom to the Apostles. Keys are for binding and loosing.
And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven (Matthew 16:18-19).”
I will pick this up in the next essay and explain a little more, but when Jesus says the Apostle’s can bind and loose, He means their sentences as elders carry the weight of authority. In cases that come before them, when disciples tell “it to the Church” because they could not be resolved privately, the Apostle’s decisions are binding on the individuals involved. This power is not unique to the Apostles, it was given to them as the first teaching elders in the Church. The power to bind and loose passes to their successor elders and did not dissolve at their passing into glory. All qualified elders that followed in their wake possess the power to bind and loose.
Who Should Administer Justice Among Christians?
The Bible has an awful lot to say to Christians about how to administer justice among ourselves. The question is who should administer it? Jesus ends Matthew 18:17 with “tell it to the church.” That is when the case moves from the private sphere to the public. The church, represented by the elders, handles public cases of sin. Christ’s people cannot fully obey His commands to administer justice without an institution to mediate them. The need someone with power to bind and loose, to resolve, to arbitrate between parties.
Remember Paul is writing letters to Churches in Ephesus and Corinth, not to individuals in the passages above. In Matthew 18:15-20 Jesus is teaching the men He chose to found the institution we call the Church how they are to deal with sin in the body. Jesus, through the Apostles, gave us the laws and officers that are to govern the colonies of Heaven we call churches for all time. No Christian can live outside the laws of God or the authority of Christ, nor do they wish to. That means no Christian can live outside the Church, the institution He founded to mediate His authority through and to provide infrastructure for those who live in His Kingdom.
Living In The Kingdom Is Living In The Church
Churches are politeums–groups of citizens in the Israel of God. Christians in each nation are a Kingdom within a kingdom. They are political unit unto themelves. That is why churches do not pay taxes as. They are colonies of Heaven–organized expressions (Visible Church) of the universal Kingdom of God (Invisible Church). They do not belong to the nation they inhabit, they are Christ’s.
To return to where we started, Christians believe in the separation of the powers of Church and the State because we believe both have legitimate powers and exist as an institutions alongside each other. When someone becomes a Christian they are “delivered…from the domain of darkness and transferred… to the kingdom of his beloved Son (Colossians 1:13).” We leave one kingdom and become citizens in another and that Kingdom, Jesus’ Kingdom has a visible expression and officers with real power to resolve conflict and discipline their members. Living under Christ’s domain means living under the authority of elders in a local church. It requires disciples to become Church-Oriented.
Coming Up Next
How and when do visible churches get power over Christians and what is the nature of the Church’s power? We’ll answer those questions in Church-Oriented Part 2.
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord!
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Ascending Mt. Zion
For the upcoming Lord’s Day July 27th, 2025
Sermon
We will return to our Acts Series this week! Acts 25:23-26:32
Memory & Meditation
M & M Verses for the Lord’s Day July 20th, 2025 are
1 Peter 2:16-17
16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. 17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
SPCC Prayer Book: Our Civic Duties
Completed Essay Series’ in 2025
Celebrating the Ascension
The Coronation of the Son of Man based on Daniel 7:13-14
The Indwelling Advocate: Christ’s Gift of the Holy Spirit Part 1 based on John 14:15-17
The Indwelling Advocate: Christ’s Gift of the Holy Spirit Part 2 based on John 14:18-21 (Available soon with Part 3 as well.)
Putting On Immortality Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 based on 1 Corinthians 15:35-49
Forsaken For Us All Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 based on Psalm 22:1-15
Christ, His Church, & Marriage Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 based on Ephesians 5:22-33.
Catechism Questions
Westminster Shorter Catechism for June 2025: Questions 26-30
Remember that you can present Questions 21-25, our WSC Catechism Questions from last month, to any member of the Consistory during lunch starting this week.
Lord’s Day Meal
Yes
Psalms & Hymns of Worship
Psalm 73:1-3 Tune: Ortonville (Joy to the World) Hymn- On Jordan’s Stormy Banks (Indelible Grace)
Psalm 74:20-23 Tune: Resignation Hymn- Jesus I My Cross Have Taken (Indelible Grace)
Midweek Worship & Consistory Meeting
Yes. We are at the Senior Center. Pizza arrives @ 6:15ish pm, Opus Dei @ 7 pm with Catechism Lesson & Intercessory Prayer to follow.
Consistory Assignment TBA
The first hour 7:30-8:30 pm is dedicated additional learning and is open for all Heads-of-Households and young men to attend via Zoom. For the meeting on the 18th we are reading Chapter 2 of “Life Together” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Amazon link) and the Introduction through Chapter 2 in Calvin’s Short Treatise on the Lord’s Supper (Free E-Book on Monergism).
Paul writes in 1 Timothy 3: 1 that “The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.” Men, if you desire to one day enter the Consistory as a deacon or elder, then attendance to this hour will be important for your development and for the Consistory to gauge your aspirations, gifts, and calling in the Lord.
Join Us for Worship
Finally, come and worship with us on the Lord’s Day. We also meet on three Wednesday evenings a month for Catechism Lesson & Prayer. Another Visit our Homepage or What We Believe for more information. Find us on Google Maps or watch our sermons on Youtube.
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord!
Pastor Jeremy
“The Creation is quite like a spacious and splendid house, provided and filled with the most exquisite, and at the same time, the most abundant furnishings. Everything in it tells of God.” – John Calvin
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