Month: August 2016

A shepherd’s heart may be more important for a pastor than an eloquent tongue.  Sounds crazy given today’s emphasis on the “production quality” of the church’s gathered worship.  Get a worship team that sounds like the hottest Christian concert band!  Get a pastor who wows with his words!  But hear the apostle Paul who admitted . . .

“Even if I am unskilled in speaking . . . ” (2 Corinthians 11:6).  So maybe Paul didn’t measure up to the Greek rhetoricians.  But no one could discount his pastor’s heart.

The word “pastor(s)” is found only once in the New Testament (“It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ”–Ephesians 4:11-13, NIV).

The original Greek (poimayn)literally means “shepherd” or “goat-herd”.  The English word “pastor” comes from the Latin noun which means “shepherd”.  The Latin verb means “to lead to pasture, set to grazing, causes to eat.”

The image we’re to have of a pastor, then, is of a shepherd.  Emphasis lies on “feeding” people God’s Word, but as part of the pastor/shepherd’s care for the people/sheep. I say that because in today’s text Paul reveals a heart that beats with the heart of a shepherd.    Read the text  below with me and see how many words and phrases unveil that heart . . .

Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith, that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know. For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.

But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you—for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith. For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord.  For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God,  as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?

Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you,  and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you,  so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints (1 Thessalonians 2:17–3:13, ESV).

The most pregnant phrase in those paragraphs:  ” . . . when I could bear it no longer . . . ”  Paul couldn’t endure another day not knowing ” . . . about [their] faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted [them] and [his] labor would be in vain.”  The man who endured virtually more suffering than we can imagine, couldn’t stand any longer not knowing how the Thessalonians were responding to affliction from the tempter through the hostile Jews.

How easy to pick out a few other pastors and criticize their hearts!  But over four decades of pastoring, I wonder about mine.  Granted, Paul didn’t know when or if he’d see the Thessalonians again.  I’d see “my sheep” on Sunday.  But what about my heart?

• Was I longing with great desire to soon see “my” people face-to-face?
• Did I see them as my hope and joy and crown of boasting before the Lord Jesus at his coming?
• Were they my glory and joy?
• Did I fear that the tempter may tempt them through affliction to turn from the faith so that my work would be for nothing?
• Did I rejoice and thank God when I saw their faith and love?
• Did I pray fervently to be able to supply what was lacking in their faith?
• Did I thank God for his work in them?
• Did I pray that God would establish their hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints?

Too often I’d have to answer, “No.”  Too often I was more  concerned with empty chairs or how well I played my guitar or if people liked my sermon than I was about their spiritual condition and their growth in holiness.

Pastors aren’t perfect.  (Amen!)  But (we) pastors bear much responsibility (not all, by any means, but much) for the hearts of “our” people.

May the Lord give our pastors a heart like Paul’s,
so that “our” people may have a heart like His!

In the late 1970’s we planted a church in Northern New Jersey.  As it happened, the charismatic movement was sweeping through the area.  Itinerant preaches captivated congregations with casting-out-demons sermons.  Behind every ill, it seemed, Satan lurked.

Nowadays, at least in my church circles, Satan’s treated less seriously, if at all.  However,  in 1 Thessalonians 2:17-20, Paul explained he had wanted to re-visit the Thessalonians “but Satan hindered us.”

But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face,  because we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, again and again—but Satan hindered us.  For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you?  For you are our glory and joy.  (1 Thessalonians 2:17-20, ESV).

What do we know about Satan?  Here’s a brief back-story . . .

A God-Created Fallen Angel.

“All things were made [by God] through [the Word who was God] (John 1:3).  “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31).  Therefore, God created Satan and created him good.  But in Genesis 3, Satan, in a serpent’s form, is tempting Eve to disobey God.  Between chapters 1 and 3 some angels sinned.  “God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell . . . ” (2 Peter 2:4).

How did they sin?  In Isaiah 14:12-15 Isaiah prophecies against the king of Babylon with language that seems too strong to refer to merely a human king.  Wayne Grudem comments, “It would not be uncommon for Hebrew prophetic speech to pass from description of human events . . . to  heavenly events that are parallel to them . . . ” (Systematic Theology).

“How are you fallen from heaven,
O Day Star, son of the Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground
you who laid the nations low!
You said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven above the stars of God.
I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will make myself like the Most High.’
But you are brought down to Sheol,
to the depths of the Pit.”

Not God’s Equal.

Rebellious angels are now confirmed in their evil by God.  Therefore, Satan as a fallen angel is “leashed” by God.

Satan is no more God’s equal than a puppy whose leash we hold.  We’re not chess pieces caught up in a cosmic match between two equal masters, pawns in the hands of competing powers.  Yet, as an angel, Satan wields greater power than we humans.

Aims.

Here are a few of Satan’s goals in his nefarious rebellion . . .

• Replace God’s reign (see Isaiah 14:12-15 above).
• Slander God’s character (see Job 1:11,12 above).
• Destroy God’s purposes for mankind (Since the children, as he calls them, are people of flesh and blood, Jesus himself became like them and shared their human nature. He did this so that through his death he might destroy the Devil, who has the power over death, and in this way set free those who were slaves all their lives because of their fear of death—Hebrews 2:14,15).

Strategy.

Here are three parts of Satan’s plan . . .

• Deny God’s Word (Did God actually say . . . ?  You will not surely die—Genesis 3:1,4).
• Seek to make humans think they are the measure and goal of everything ( . . . you will be like God—Genesis 35)
• Distort God’s truth (Paul condemning Bar-Jesus:  “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?”—Acts 13:10)/

(Note:  above “Aims” and “Strategy” gleaned from bible.org/seriespage/commendation-and-thanksgiving-1-thess-213-20.)

Tactic.

Interestingly, when we read the Acts account of Paul in Thessalonica (17:1-9), author Luke mentions hindrance from men’s attacks, but nothing about Satan.   I suspect that’s because God is telling us that often Satan carries out his strategies through humans, whether as individuals or in organizations.  In other words, the hostile Thessalonians opposing Paul and the gospel were Satan-inspired

That’s what I take Paul to imply in Ephesians 6:12—For we are not fighting against human beings but against the wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark age. Human “rulers and authorities” that oppose Christ and his gospel are empowered by “the wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world.”  So they are whom we’re fighting against as we follow Jesus and spread his message.

The Long-Red-Underwear-One 21st Century.
Don’t laugh.  But don’t ignore either.  Satan’s as real now as when Jesus was among us.  His aims and strategies and tactics are the same.  We have an enemy who prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8).  Following Jesus in an evil-one-controlled world (1 John 5:19) amounts to spiritual warfare.  For how to fight see 1 Peter 5:9 and Ephesians 6:10-20.

Paul’s Odd Tactic.

As far as I can tell from Scripture didn’t return to Thessalonica and command, “Get behind me, Satan!”  He simply went on to Corinth.  Which suggests to me, Paul saw Satan’s hindrance as God’s guidance.  Just as the Lord used Satan’s attacks on Job for a greater good in Job’s life, so he used Satan’s attacks through the Thessalonians for a greater good in spreading the gospel.  With the way back to Thessalonica blocked, Paul wrote letters to them and preached the gospel in Corinth.

Showing us that sometimes when Satan seems on the loose doing his devilish work,
our Lord still has him leashed for his good purposes.

What models for ministry do  pastors and other Christian leaders (worship, youth, Sunday school, small group leaders) have today?  To whom and what must they consciously, or even subconsciously, look to pattern their own leadership after?

Clearly this is imperative.  The right model will pass on the right leadership, the wrong will pass on the wrong.  And it will, for good or for bad, affect everyone who follows that leader.

John Piper, in his book Brothers, We Are Not Professionals!”  (http://document.desiringgod.org/brothers-we-are-not-professionals-en.pdf?1439242057)  argues that pastors are under “quiet” pressure to . . .

“Be as good as the professional media folks, especially the cool anti-heroes and the most subtle comedians. This is not the overstated professionalism of the three-piece suit and the stuffy upper floors but the understated professionalism of torn blue jeans and the savvy inner ring. This professionalism is not learned in pursuing an MBA but in being in the know about the ever-changing entertainment and media world. This is the professionalization of ambience, and tone, and idiom, and timing, and banter. It is more intuitive and less taught. More style and less technique. More feel and less force.”

I chuckle at Piper’s remark “the understated professionalism of torn blue jeans”, because over several weeks I happened upon a half-dozen young preachers on TV all wearing blue jeans.  The new clerical garb!

In today’s text (1 Thessalonians 2:1-16) Paul provides “a mighty ministry model”.  (Nothing to do with jeans!)

Paul is in Corinth (Acts 18:1), concerned about the persecuted new believers back in Thessalonica. Timothy has returned from a personal fact-finding visit with an encouraging report, but also with news of Jewish persecution condemning Paul to turn believers from his gospel.  In this section Paul defends himself.  From his self- defense we glimpse segments of his “mighty ministry model.”

1 For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. 2 But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. 3 For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, 4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. 5 For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness. 6 Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. 7 But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. 8 So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us (2:1-8, ESV).

Transparency.

That’s a word which politicians have made a mockery.  But not Paul.  And not (hopefully) Christian leaders who follow his model. Three times in this paragraph (verses 1, 2 and 5) Paul refers to what the Thessalonians came to know about him:  “that our coming to you was not in vain”, “that they had boldness in our God to declare . . . the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict” and having “already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi”, and that “we never came with words of flattery . . . nor with a pretext for greed”.  Paul’s life was an open book.

A Christian leader must be transparent.  Thereby he encourages others to follow, not just with his words and triumphs, but with his wounds and weaknesses.

Boldness in God.

The Greek word translated “boldness” (verse 2) implies open speaking.  Paul and his partners spoke the gospel openly “in the midst of much conflict”.  No whispering in the shadows. They were confident of God’s presence with them and provision for them.

Christian leaders in America still remain relatively persecution-free (but the circle is tightening!).  Even so, often God’s Word counters what people want to hear.  Ever try telling a yet-unmarried Christian couple they must stop sleeping together?  We need boldness in our God.

Awareness of Being Entrusted by God with the Gospel.

This concerns motive and method (verses 3-5).  Paul’s motive was never deception.  He believed he had been entrusted with the gospel—a trust to be guarded and passed on truthfully.  His motive was always to please God not people, knowing God tests and tries our heart.

None of us is perfect in how we interpret and preach the gospel.  But I cringe when I hear a  preacher butcher the biblical text.  He does so either because he’s been careless in preparation or is trying to further his personal agenda.  Honestly, most preachers I’ve heard carry a way-too-casual demeanor about the text.  This is God’s Word!  Too often preachers fail to understand they have been entrusted with it and, therefore, approach it without any sense of reverence.  If leaders approach the written gospel as just another text book, how will followers treat it?

Mother-Like Care.

Gentle with converts, “like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.”  ” . . . affectionately desirous of you.”   ” . . . ready to share with you . . . our own selves.”  ” . . . you had become very dear to us” (verses 6-8).  No demands.  This is incredible.  I’d expect Paul, suffering persecution wounds himself, enduring painful hardships to fulfill his ministry, to lose patience with slow learners, maybe take out his frustration on them.  But he reminds them of the mother-like care he gave them and they recalled weeks later.

A female Sunday school teacher may want to show mother-like care; but I haven’t known many pastors over four decades of my ministry who wanted to be known for this virtue.  We pastors want to be known as strong (forgetting that gentle, mother-like care is strength  beyond the corporate leadership model we often follow).  Think of Jesus with the poor, the hungry, the sick.  Mother-like care.  It’s harder to show that than to preach a powerful sermon!

For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.  You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers.  For you know how, like a father with his children,  we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory (2:9-12, ESV).

Father-Like Exhortation.

Paul reminds the Thessalonians of how he worked hard at his tent-making trade, so not to burden them for financial support.  He calls them witnesses to his holy, righteous and blameless conduct.  He points to their knowledge of how he exhorted, encouraged and charged the converts “to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.”  That exhortation “had teeth” only because this is how Paul himself as a “father” lived.

To speak words of exhortation, encouragement and command to live in a manner worthy of our God isn’t so great a challenge (though to do it like a loving father without harshness is!).  But it’s much more challenging to conduct ourselves in holy, righteous and blameless ways—and then call on those we lead as witnesses to that conduct!

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.  For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews,  who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind  by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last (2:13-16, ESV)

Gratitude When People Receive God’s Word As God’s Word.

How did Paul know his “followers” had received God’s Word as God’s Word.  One, he saw the “fruit” of God’s Word at work in them.  Two, they become imitators of other followers of Jesus.  And, three, they followed despite suffering.  For that Paul constantly thanks God.

Many Christian leaders (pastors especially) are occupied with the next step, the next level, more converts, bigger growth.  Vision is important—but not to the exclusion of what God is doing now.  Ingratitude for God’s work is a mark of unrighteousness and incurs God’s wrath (see Romans 1:21).  It’s not the mark of a “mighty ministry model”.

Why a Mighty Ministry Model?

I included mighty in this title not just for alliteration’s sake.  I use it to identify the ministry model’s source.  It wasn’t Paul’s personal power that created this model.  It was God’s through the Holy Spirit at work in Paul.  Therefore, model Christian ministers (pastor, Sunday school teacher, etc.) must seek the empowering of the Spirit in prayer and in the Word.

But Paul couldn’t be passive, waiting for that anointing to fall.  In mind and heart he—and we who would follow his model—must deliberately aim at that model.  That requires rejecting the “quiet” pressure to follow the world’s media and entertainment model.  It requires “hanging on our refrigerator” a poster of the apostle instead of a poster of the current celebrity (Christian or otherwise).

Whether we wear torn blue jeans or not, may God empower us by his Word and Spirit to become mighty ministry models for those who come after us!

 They call Thessalonika (present day spelling) “Greece’s Hippest City”.  Want to visit?  Book a room at the Plaza hotel online at http://www.booking.com/hotel/gr/plaza-art.html?aid=314342, 

Paul, at Corinth in 50 A.D., worried about how the new Thessalonian believers were holding up in the face of persecution.  Having no computer for email, he sent Timothy to find out (1 Thessalonians 3:1-5).  When Timothy returned with a glowing report, Paul wrote the letter we call 1 Thessalonians.  Here’s chapter 1 . . .

Paul, Silas and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you. We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers.  We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.  For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you,  because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake.  You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.  And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.  The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia– your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it,  for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,  and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead– Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. (1 Thessalonians 1:1-10, ESV).

At first reading it might seem the Thessalonians’ persevering faith in persecution’s face was due to their determination, their strength of character.  That’s partly true.  They made choices to hang on to faith.  After all, it was their work faith produced, their labor love prompted, their endurance hope in Jesus inspired.  They imitated the missionaries and the Lord, welcoming the message in spite of severe suffering.  They turned from idols to serve the living God and to wait for God’s Son from heaven.

As I understand it, the doctrine of God’s sovereignty (“The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all”—Psalm 103:19. NIV) doesn’t preclude human choice.  For example, when Joshua challenged the Israelites, ” . . . choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15), they were confronted with a real choice—the gods of the Amorites or the LORD.  And they would be blessed or cursed accordingly.

I love this quote by Charles Spurgeon (19th century British Baptist preacher), but we might infer more than we should about God’s sovereignty and human’s choice . . .

“I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes – that every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit, as well as the sun in the heavens – that the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as the stars in their courses. The creeping of an aphid over the rosebud is as much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence – the fall of . . . leaves from a poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche.”

Humans aren’t dust or spray or chaff or aphid or leaves.  While God surely must first awaken us out of sin’s deadness, we are still able to choose much.  Especially as reborn-by-the-Spirit believers we can choose to welcome the gospel though we’ll incur persecution, we can choose to labor in love for a friend, we can choose to drive our idols to the dump.

When we more carefully read 1 Thessalonians 1 it becomes clear Paul is celebrating what God has ultimately done.  He thanks God for the Thessalonians.  That “thanks” sets the chapter’s tone:  even for all the Thessalonians have done Paul thanks God.

Yet, before any action by the Thessalonians, they were “loved by God” and chosen by him.  That choice was evident by how the gospel came to them—namely, “with power, with the Holy Spirit, and with deep conviction.”  (I take Paul to mean that the power of the Holy Spirit produced deep conviction in the Thessalonians.)  Despite knowing they would face severe suffering, “they welcomed the message with joy given by the Holy Spirit.”  Jesus’ physical resurrection dynamically demonstrated he is “the living and true God.”  The promise of his coming again from heaven offered hope of rescue “from the coming wrath.”  Therefore, both God’s act in historical resurrection and in future coming moved them to turn from dead idols.

Question:  did the Thessalonians’ conversion experience result from God’s acts or theirs?  Answer:  yes.  God the Holy Spirit was the prior and prime Actor.  The Thessalonians were thereby enabled and responsible to answer; but they weren’t compelled to believe and rejoice and persevere as if God’s sovereignty made them  puppets.

So today.  It’s possible for us to be into the doctrine of God’s sovereignty so much that he is the ultimate cause of everything and we are responsible for nothing.  (In the same way, it’s possible for us to presume God’s not active in his creature and everything’s pretty much up to us.)  At what point exactly does God’s sovereign act end and man’s responding act begin?  I don’t know.  Here, it seems to me, is knowledge too high for us.  It’s enough for us to know God is the prior and primary Actor, and we are responsible to respond accordingly.

We are not Deists or Moral Therapeutic Deists who believe God “wound up” the world and left it to run on its own, except to help us when we can’t go it alone.  God is directly, deliberately involved in his creation and with his creatures.  For that, with Paul, we can be most thankful.

But that doesn’t give us license to do nothing until we “feel moved”.  Scripture is chock full of commands and directives.  Obedience isn’t meritorious, but it is required.  So, knowing God is acting, let’s do the good we know to do.

Then, let’s celebrate—our accomplishments with a small-scale celebration and God’s accomplishments as if we’re practicing for an eternity of effusive praise in the hippest city ever.  (We are.)