Jesus is the sole and authoritative Head of the church. The church belongs to Him, and He leads the church as it’s only Sovereign and Captain. But how exactly does Jesus demonstrate His headship?
First, Jesus demonstrates His headship through His word. By His word He commands, limits, corrects and guides His people. His sheep know His voice and they follow Him. His voice is heard in His word.
Second, Christ exercises His authority and headship through leaders. Jesus through His word ordains that the local church know the blessing of under-shepherds. Christ himself is the Chief Shepherd, but He delegates the shepherding role with qualified, godly men called to also shepherd.
Jesus demonstrates His headship in the church in at least one other way. He uses the congregation to administer His will. We see this in a couple of ways.
The Congregation Worships
Perhaps this is too obvious to state, but each time the congregation assembles and offers praise to God by reading His word, offering prayers, and giving attention to His word, the congregation not only submits to but participates in the exercise of the Lord’s headship. To worship Jesus as Lord is both to honor His headship ourselves but also to call and encourage others in such submission. When Jesus proclaims that “all authority in heaven and earth has been given unto me” (Matt. 28:18), we’re meant to see a reference to the gathering of the nations prophesied in Daniel 7:13-14:
In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
Every call to worship in a public gathering of the church, every act of missions and evangelism, is an exercise of Jesus’ sovereign authority through His people.
The Congregation Provides
When we speak of the headship or authority of Christ, we must keep in mind that Christ is Head of the church not as a tyrant is head of a country but in the way a loving husband is head of his wife (Eph. 5:25-33). In other words, Jesus’ authority is married to His sacrificial love and care. So, we might expect that exercises of His authority would be manifested in acts of love and mercy. And we might expect that such headship would be extended through His body, the church, covering both spiritual and material needs.
Indeed, the Bible is replete with commands and exhortations to the church to provide spiritually for its members. We see this form of headship pictured in Paul’s use of the body image in Eph. 4:11-16. We are all to grow up into the Head, which is Christ, and we do so as each part of the body “grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” Moreover, the Bible requires the congregation provide for the material needs of its members. We’re called to give and share to such an extent that there is no need among us (Acts 2:44-45; 4:32, 34-35; Rom. 12:13; James 2:14-16; 1 John 3:16-18). Such provision is how Jesus uses His authority and demonstrates His headship through the congregation, by loving providing the spiritual and material needs of His people.
The Congregation Disciplines
Finally, Jesus demonstrates His sole and final authority in the congregation by calling the congregation to discipline its members. Galatians 6:1-2 charges all those who are spiritual to gently restore those who are wandering in or toward sin. And in places like 1 Corinthians 5 and Matthew 18:17, the congregation takes the final action in implementing corrective love. By acting to remove unrepentant members or to restore those who have fallen, the congregation upholds the order that Jesus commands of His church. The congregation acts under the authority of Christ, defined and limited by His word and motivated by His love, to advance and promote the way of life required of those who follow Jesus as Master. In this way, the entire congregation participates in teaching disciples to obey all that Jesus commands as Christ himself keeps His promise to be with them until the end (Matt. 28:19-20). Whenever a congregation humbly, gently, and lovingly disciplines a member, Jesus exercises through that church the headship and authority that belongs to Him alone.
Conclusion
In the same way that my head (thoughts, intents, etc.) expresses itself through movements of my body, the Lord Jesus expresses His headship through His spiritual body, the church. If we want to see how Jesus exercises authority in His church, we must learn to look at the church as an appendage that carries out His will to love, lead, provide for, and correct. As the body complies with the Head, it not only lives under the Head but also becomes an exercise of headship.
