The New Testament equivalent to all of this is seen in Acts 15. We are told quite clearly that James, the brother of Jesus, had the final headship authority of the church in Jerusalem. Even though all the remaining original 11 apostles were still resident in Jerusalem, it was necessary for a final executive head to be recognized over the home church. For some reason, which is not explained, king Jesus chose James, who was his natural half-brother after the flesh. The Kingdom of God runs on headship; it does not run on communities, not even committees of apostles, the apostolic community!
At that time, they had a difficult problem to solve, which was whether the converted Gentile should keep the law of Moses. When they came together to consider this matter, there were all kinds of conflicting opinions. Some were very sure of their doctrinal position.
Act 15: 1- The gentiles have to be circumcised and keep the law Moses, otherwise they cannot be saved.
But Peter, Barnabas, and Paul now had a very different opinion because of their recent experiences with God, the Holy Spirit.
If you had heard the different opinions being so strongly expressed at the beginning of this first council of Jerusalem, you would have thought there was no way they would be able to get unanimity (agreement by all the people) over this issue. It looked more like they were going to end up with a church split. But look how the Spirit of God worked and used the leadership and wisdom of James: he went away and consulted with the apostles, who are the New Testament equivalent to the captains of thousands. Then they met with the elders, the New Testament equivalent to the captains of hundreds and 50s.
James listened to all the wisdom that was being poured out and to all the different opinions being expressed by various people, but most of all he was listening hard to God. The Spirit was saying to him, that’s good. Listen to what that person is saying, He’s got it. Take note of that. But be careful here; That’s not my wisdom, so just put it aside.
In all the mass of opinions being expressed, James got a clear strategy from the Spirit of God. Then God gave him supporting scripture through the prophet Amos-Acts 15: 16-17.
After James had listened to the various opinions flying around the room, he gave the church his judgment based upon the refined wisdom of everything that they had heard. He didn’t say, the apostles have voted seven to five in favor. He didn’t say, the Elders were 47 to 3 in favor. Instead, he said something like this: Peter, Barnabas, and Paul had given their first-hand experience of the Spirit coming upon the Gentiles just as he did upon us at the beginning, I have weighed all the conflicting and different perspectives on this question. Now, I can see a clear strategy of God’s wisdom through all of it. The Holy Spirit has also spoken to me and shown me that the scripture in (Amos 9: 11-12) concerning the raising again of David’s Tabernacle is relevant here. If you look at all this, you can see there is a clear answer from God; Therefore, this is my judgment. I’ve used my Apostolic wisdom to make a final appraisal; as a result, I’m now telling you what we are going to do so that we can all be in agreement as one church body.
James then specified the necessary particularities for the people of the church, whether Jew or Gentile, to observe to allow this to happen. It tells us in (Acts 15: 22) that this judgment please the Apostles and Elders, with the whole church… yes! The Holy Spirit was sitting in judgment saying through James, this is my judgment, and this is the right decision.
They came from all those diverse positions to arrive at a complete unity regarding what God was telling them to do. It says in (Acts 15: 30-31)a that the decree sent from Jerusalem was enthusiastically received by the church in Antioch. Are you beginning to see how these things work?
From this scripture we should learn that we are not to make decisions by the consensus vote of a committee. Neither should decisions be made by one autocratic leader imposing his will on the people. There’s only one Lord of the church, and his name is Jesus Christ! He is a gentle, loving, benevolent king and has perfect ability to command us through the Holy Spirit. Once he has spoken, we just need to get in line and do what he says. But in practice, it is difficult to ensure that his will is being flawlessly communicated. This is best done by means of God ordained protocol, which is carefully shown to us and Acts 15. The Kingdom of God cannot run effectively without that kind of government being in place. We need a proper procedure to ensure that we really know God’s will.