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A God Exalting Pastor

A GOD EXALTING PASTOR
JUNE 30, 2013 SERMON
MIKE CUNNINGHAM
JUNE 30, 2013
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When God relieves me of my pastoral duties you folks will have the responsibility of searching for a man to be my successor. In last’s weeks sermon I quoted excerpts from a tremendously insightful book to assist you in that endeavor. “Feed My Sheep” makes a passionate plea for preaching. The publisher explains that,

“Biblical preaching is nearing extermination in our day. There is “sharing,” “suggesting,” plenty of story telling, and lots of preaching to “felt needs.” But the authoritative, expositional opening of the Word of God is more rare to find all the time.”

“This book is a plea for preachers to ‘”reach the Word.” In the Old Testament God decried the fact that His people were perishing for lack of knowledge about Himself. Too often, those who have been called to feed Christ’s sheep do little more than pet them instead of feeding them the Word of God.”

“When [Martin] Luther was called upon to recant of his teachings, he made his epic stand, stating, “Unless I am convinced by sacred Scripture or by evident reason, I cannot recant, for my conscience is held captive by the Word of God; and to act against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me.” “He left the assembly hall and was taken on horseback by his friends so that he could be hidden and protected from the authorities who were soon to put a price on his head.” “He spent his years teaching and preaching in Wittenberg, just as Calvin in Switzerland spent his years preaching in the church and teaching several times each week until the day he died.”

“The first thing that is required of a preacher is that he is “apt to teach.” At this point Luther is simply echoing the apostolic qualifications set forth in the New Testament for the position of the elder (pastor). That person who is elevated to a position of leadership in the church of God, and is given oversight and supervision over the flock of God, must be able to teach. Luther saw this as the primary task of the minister.”

“This concept is all but lost in the church today. When we call ministers to our churches, we demand of them that they be administrators, skilled at fund-raising, and that they are organizers. We also hope that they might know a little bit of theology and a little bit of the Bible, and we expect them to preach interesting and often entertaining sermons. But we don’t make it a priority that those people be equipped to teach the congregation the things of God. Luther said that was the primary task of the pastor, of the shepherd, to teach the people of God the things of God.”

“Think of the encounter that Jesus had with Peter after the resurrection, following Peter’s denial of Jesus publicly three times. Jesus confronted Simon Peter and said to him, “Simon, do you love Me?” Peter responded, “Lord, you know that I love you.” And Jesus said, “Then feed My lambs, Peter.” Peter perhaps manifested a little annoyance that Jesus would ask him this again, “Lord, you know that I love you!” Then tend My sheep.” Three times Jesus instructs the apostle to be engaged in the tending and caring, the leading and feeding of His sheep.”

“It is because the people of God who are assembled in the churches all over America belong to Jesus, they are His sheep. Every minister who is ordained is consecrated and entrusted by God with the care of those sheep. That is why we call the position “the pastorate” or “the pastoral ministry”, because we care for the sheep of Christ. And what shepherd would so neglect his sheep that he never took time or the trouble to feed them? It is the feeding of the sheep, according to Luther, that is the number one task of the ministry. And that feeding comes, principally, through teaching.”

“So many ministers are frankly afraid to teach the content of Scripture to the people because they haven’t learned it themselves first. The people of God need to say to their pastors, or to their prospective pastors, “Feed us the Word of God.” Be careful to choose a pastor who will open up the Scriptures to you.”

“The last months of the year 2000 were a period of mourning over the loss of one of my closest friends and comrades in the ministry, Dr. James Montgomery Boyce.” “Jim Boyce had all the academic credentials a person could ever want to go to the top of the ladder in the academic world, but that was not his call. His call was to be a pastor.” “…the teaching of the Word is what God expects from those whom He sets apart and ordains as ministers. He desires that they will take His Word and give it to the people.

“Luther said the minister must be irreproachable in his doctrine, that the preacher who preaches the Word of God must be sound in his understanding of the sacred Scriptures.” “In this day and age we tend to put a premium on openness, and we don’t like a dogmatic spirit where people are too certain of that which they preach or teach. We almost expect the minister, if he is to be politically correct, to say, “Well maybe it is this or maybe it is that,” because we don’t want the minister to offend anybody by a proclamation that communicates too much certainty or authority. But Luther said “No, no, no, no.” The pastor must do his homework. He’s not supposed to manifest the certitude that is born of arrogance, but rather the certainty that comes from the text of Scripture itself.”

“Luther was certain about the doctrine of justification. Without the assurance he had that the Bible taught that doctrine, he could never have stood against the world, and against all the authority structures of his day.” “Both Luther and Calvin, even to this day, in the academic world, are regarded as being incredible geniuses who exhibited a rare and extraordinary mastery of their material. That is what ministers are called to do today, to master their material. The enterprise of preaching requires nothing less than that kind of due diligence. Why? Because their task is not to bark from the pulpit like barking dogs, woofing their opinions, but their task is to set forth with clarity and with boldness the Word of God.”

“This is how Luther and Calvin understood the task of the minister. The greatest awakening in the history of the church took place when, after the darkness had eclipsed the truth of the gospel and hidden the Word in obscurity, the light burst forth on the scene and awakened Christendom in the 16th century. That light was carried to churches by men who were bold enough to proclaim the Word of God and who saw their task to be presenting the unembellished, undiluted, unvarnished Word of God.”

“That is why they poured over the texts of Scripture, being careful of their exegesis before they entered the pulpit. Because that was the center of their task, they were fearless. Their fearlessness, their boldness, their courage came from the conviction that what they were preaching and teaching was of Word of God.”

“As our society becomes more and more secular, there is an attempt to rethink church, to remove all of the artifacts of “churchiness:” get rid of pulpits, get rid of pews, turn the church building into what looks like a concert hall, and turn worship into an outreach ministry that comes across as “exciting,” “interesting,” and “entertaining.” It’s almost like were saying to our congregations today, “Let me entertain you.” The number one hymn today may be, “There’s no business like show business.”

“Luther claimed that it is not the task of the pastor to entertain, but to nurture, to feed, and to be faithful to the Word of God. He said it is the task of the minister to protect the flock from heresy and from error. Today, if you preach against heresy and against error, you are entering into the arena of the politically incorrect because we live in a culture that has been captured by the spirit of relativism. Relativism says this: “truth is what you perceive it to be, and what is true for you may be false for somebody else.”

“Every time [the Prophet] Jeremiah opened his mouth and proclaimed the Word of God to Jerusalem, there were a hundred false prophets who would answer him by telling the people, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace. The people didn’t want to hear the bad news that Jeremiah was prophesying, and so they heaped to themselves false teachers because they had itching ears. They went to hear the teachers and preachers who preached to them what they wanted to hear.”

“Jeremiah complained about this, “God, these people, these false prophets, are dreaming up this stuff. They heal the wound of the Daughter of Zion slightly. “When he complained to God he said, “God, you have deceived me, and I am deceived. You’ve overwhelmed me, and I am overwhelmed.” But what did God say to him? Jeremiah; let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream. As the Psalmist says, ‘Fret not yourselves over evil doers.’ It is not your concern. Let them tell their dream. I’ll take care of them. But let the man of God preach the Word of God faithfully.”

“In the metaphor of the sheep, the false prophet was the wolf in sheep’s clothing. The false prophet was the one who came in and preached in a religious setting to the sheep of the household of God. What they were preaching was to the people’s everlasting destruction and ruin. The true prophet or the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. There is a reason why the good shepherd has that staff and the rod. They are to protect the sheep from the wolves that would come in and ravage them. Luther said that the false teacher, the false preacher, is the worse of all possible criminals, because he spreads a poison that has everlasting consequences and the pastor must protect his sheep from that criminal element.”

“He also said that the structure of the human person is an important clue to preaching. God has made us in His image and He has given us minds. The Word was meant to be understood.”

“The sermon is addressed to the mind, but it’s not just a communication of information-there is also admonition and exhortation. There is a sense in which we are addressing people’s will and are calling them to move.”

“The sermon is not an exercise in abstract thinking. Therefore, that which makes the deepest and most long-lasting impression on people is concrete illustrations. For Luther, the three most important principles of public communication are illustrate, illustrate, illustrate. That is why he encouraged the preacher to use concrete images and narratives. He advises that, when preaching on abstract doctrine, the pastor find a narrative in Scripture that communicates that truth, and to communicate the abstract through the concrete.”

“He answered it in the concrete by giving a real- life situation to illustrate what he was talking about. (When) “Jonathan Edwards preached his famous “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” sermon, he preached that sermon reading it in a monotone from a draft of the sermon, “O sinner, you are hanging, as it were, over the pit of hell, much as a spider hangs by a single thread over a flame.”

“What Edwards understood was, the more graphic the image, the more people were likely to hear it and to remember it. Luther said the same thing. However, at this point he is not substituting technique for substance, but saying that the substance of the Word of God must be communicated in simple, graphic, straightforward, illustrative ways to the people of God. And in this the whole of the matter for Luther, that the function of the minister is to be a carrier, a bearer of the Word of God-nothing less, nothing more.”

That concludes my quotes from Sproul. At this point I want to remind you folks of the undeniable fact that throughout the years God has been sending a lot of hurting people to our church. He knew that we would love them, didn’t He? That’s the reason that my successor must be a man who knows from personal experience what it’s like to endure suffering in “The furnace of affliction.” John Piper provides us with excellent guidance. For instance, he explains that: “Suffering is a universal human experience, designed by God for His glory but endangering every Christians faith. If the aim of preaching is the glory of God, and if God is most glorified in our people when they are most satisfied in Him and if the universal human experience of suffering threatens to undermine their faith in the goodness of God, and thus their satisfaction in His glory, then preaching must aim, week in and week out, to help our people be satisfied in God while suffering. Indeed we must help them count suffering as part of why they should be satisfied in God.”

“We must build into their minds and hearts a vision of God and His ways that help them see suffering not merely as a threat to their satisfaction in God (which it is). We must preach so as to make suffering seem normal and purposeful, and not surprising in this fallen age.”

“Coming to Christ means more suffering, not less, in this world. I am persuaded suffering is normal and not exceptional. We all will suffer, we all must suffer and most American Christians are not prepared in mind or heart to believe or experience this. Therefor the glory of God, the honor of Christ, the stability of the church, and the strength of commitment to world missions are at stake. If preaching does not help our people be satisfied in God through suffering, then God will not be glorified, Christ will not be honored, the church will be a weakling in an escapist world of ease, and the completion of the Great Commission with its demand for martyrdom will fail.”

“Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” (1 Peter 4:12) Let no one be disturbed by these afflictions, for you yourselves know that we have been destined for this” (1 Thessalonians 3:3). We are fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:17-18). “All who desire to live Godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12).”I protest, brethren, by my pride in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day!” (1 Corinthians 15:19. RSV). “If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied,” (1 Corinthians 15:19 RSV). People are going to suffer-that is certain.”

“And when this life of necessary suffering is at an end, there remains the last enemy, death. “It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). For God’s loved ones, dying will be the final suffering. For most of us it will be a terrible thing. In more that twenty years in the pastorate; I have walked with many saints through the last months and days, and hours of dying. And very few have been easy. Everyone I preach to is going to die if God delays His coming.” “All must suffer and all must die.”

I plan to share additional comments from Piper about how to preach to suffering people in my next sermon.

When it’s time for me to pass the baton it must be to a man that will be A GOD EXALTING PASTOR. Of course, the members of the pastoral search committee must also be God exalting people. Otherwise you are apt to make a regrettable mistake

Lord Willing, next week…

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