 Small World
I’m sure we have all seen the film bearing the same name as this blog post. The protagonist George Bailey is broken and discouraged by the hard realities of life as he is experiencing it and contemplates if his life really matters at all. In this fanciful tale a bumbling cherub guides George to discover just how impactful and beautiful his life truly has been. The story is heartwarming as it helps us to realize that our perception of reality is only partial. This means that so much more is happening than what we perceive. Of course, this film is no place to look for gaining a biblical understanding of theology, sovereignty, or angels; but it does push us to seek out blessings that we may not have already noticed. I will not go into details, but in our church just today I believe we have the full range of human experiences happening all at the same time. From beginnings to endings and from joy to grief even in our small church God is bringing about His providential will. This should encourage us that there is real hope available for us even when we are overwhelmed with circumstances or feel like we are drowning in stress. Season’s Sorrows I love this time of year! I am not a Grinch when it comes to Christmas time, but we also must admit that most of us live pretty hectic, even stress-filled lives all the time and this season can add to those pressures. The point I am making is that we are not immune to the time or the taxing demands that fill every 24 hours that we have been allotted. I know that we have all seen the statistics that this is a time when people struggle mentally and emotionally. People are genuinely struggling during this season with more than just budgets and calendars, but also with expectations of what life and relationship should or could have been. Sometimes these hardships and hurts are magnified by the sense that we might have that everything is going so well for everyone else. Because this is the case each one of us is in danger of being deceived by the lights and decorations. There is a veneer of perfection that people even unconsciously will try to display. This is not just during the holiday season but it can be especially relevant during a time when the cultural expectation of glad tidings and good cheer are at the highest. Because this is the case we must as believers labor to look to Christ and cultivate a true sense of awe and wonder at the greatest gift provided for us in the coming of the Lord Jesus that first Christmas day. Surpassing Splendor The Apostle Paul knows this kind of struggle. However, this man of God, while completely appreciating the hardship and pain, also found the sufficient grace, new mercies, and steadfast love of Christ enough to encourage his soul and strengthen his heart. Paul says that even though they are afflicted they are not crushed. He also says that even though they are perplexed they are not driven to despair (2 Corinthians 4:7-18). How can this be? How can Paul, who suffered so greatly for his witness and testimony for the Lord, not be crushed and destroyed? The answer is that Paul had the right perspective! First, Paul had the perspective of faith. He says that he and the other believers believed and so they spoke. Without this perspective of faith they would have been overcome by just what they could see with their eyes and understand from their circumstances but by faith he believed and so he was able to speak and bear witness for Jesus. Second Paul also had the perspective of grace and gratitude. He wants the grace of Christ to extend to more and more people so that thanksgiving will abound to the one who is worthy to receive them. Finally, Paul has his perspective set on eternal glory. Because of this, Paul can see beyond the present temporal pain to the eternal weight of glory that is available in Christ Jesus! As we approach Christmas, let us look to the glory of the day. It points beyond the manger to the cross, beyond the cross to the empty tomb, and beyond the empty to Christ’s glorious eternal throne!
0 Comments
 Labor of Love
God is so good to us. Our common confession is that we are saved by glorious grace. Saved by grace means that it is an unmerited favor from God. This means that there is NOTHING you could have done to deserve it or earn it and there is NOTHING you can do to lose it. With this fact firmly established, the Bible does talk about our effort (2 Peter 1:5;15) and striving (Hebrews 4:11) in our life for the Lord. Therefore, Jesus says that His yoke is easy and His burden is light Matthew 11:25-30). Jesus is not saying that our lives as Christians will be easy, for certainly all who seek to live godly lives will be persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12). Jesus is saying that in comparison to the glory that is coming these present struggles are light and temporary (2 Corinthians 4:17-18). Because this is the way that Christ has revealed Himself to us in the church then we ought to recognize that loving Him means serving Him. And this is a delightful duty! We get to serve God through what Paul called a labor of love (1 Thessalonians 1:2-3). In this passage, Paul commends the Thessalonians, telling them how thankful he is to God for their work of faith, labor of love, and steadfast hope! God has made us to work and serve. Ironically, the world seeks to be served, but the Lord Jesus Himself said that he came to serve rather than be served (Mark 10:45). So for us, as the body of Christ, our path to fullness and joy is not the path of consumption and entertainment but rather humility and service. Servants So, on this last Friday of November, I want to express my gratitude for our deacons and their wives. As a pastor, when I am with other pastors it is common for them to joke about trouble with the deacons. I can say with all honesty and sincerity that I have never seen a group of deacons be more supportive of a pastor than what Bob King, David Branscum, and Bob Blair have been for me. These men have served, not only me, but our church well and I am thankful for them. Also Bronwyn, Judy, and Debbie are faithful servants to the church. I am not the best planner and these ladies often get asked to handle things on short notice and do so beautifully. Saints I also want to extend this thanksgiving to the entire church. You all are wonderful to jump in and serve the needs of the community and especially our body. I will refrain from attempting to list all the ways that you all serve, for this blog isn’t intended to be a book. However, I want you to know that your labor and service does not go unnoticed. I will highlight one person because this is sort of comical and she deserves it. I have a bad habit of locking myself out of the church and Leada has made countless trips from her house just to let me in the door. Leada is a tireless and gracious worker for the Lord. Staff I have a couple of more people I would like to extend my personal and public gratitude to as well. Of course, only Lucy is staff, but Dustin and Lucy do so much behind the scenes that almost no one including myself sometimes ever sees. Much of the labor they are involved in doesn't get noticed because they do it so well. Dustin comes and checks the heat and air system, monitors the facility and even gets the lights all on in the mornings before church. I am thankful for this humble brother and his hard work for the Lord. Thank you Dustin! And if you enjoy reading this blog you should thank Lucy. This blog 100 percent wouldn’t happen with her. Lucy also deals graciously with my unique style of last minute ideas. She makes things much easier for me to do the ministry that God has given me here in our church. Thank you Lucy! Thank you Lord, for the blessing and privilege of not only being a part of this church family, but of being able to serve them as well!  Knowledge
Why are people not thankful? Our first inclination may be to conclude that they have a problem in their soul. Often, we may think that not being thankful is the product of bitterness, stemming from the inner being of the ungrateful person. This could be the case. However, it is also possible that the problem is a lack of faith induced by a lack of knowledge. Christianity encompasses our whole being and that includes our minds. My point is that the reason we may lack thankfulness could be a lack of understanding and instruction that would lead us to recognize all we have to be thankful for and who our gratitude is owed too. Education Christianity certainly extends beyond mere mental assent, but it is not less than knowledge of God and His gospel. With the elementary knowledge (Hebrews 6:1) necessary for salvation (2 Timothy 3:14-15) believers also advance to a more mature understanding of who God is and how He has revealed Himself. The purpose of growing in this knowledge is not to satisfy our curiosity or to inflate our ego, but rather, to increase our thanksgiving and worship of our God and King (2 Corinthians 9:11)! Christianity is about the relational reality of fellowship with God. Too often people believe that the true religion of biblical Christianity is like all the other religions in the world. In those religions, the focus is on practices that either serve the worshiper or appease the deity. But in Biblical Christianity we are learning things that God has revealed about Himself and us, not so that we can have a better life or appease Him with proper behavior but so that we can know Him and fellowship through what A.W. Tozer called “The Knowledge of the Holy.” This means that central to the life and health of the local church and each individual Christian is continual Biblical education. So often when we think of education what comes to mind is classrooms and lectures and books. Of course, we do have a book (which is actually a library of 66 books) that we must read and study, because it is the way that God speaks to us and reveals Himself to us. However, our Christian education should not be limited to formal classroom settings. For instance, after we have listened together to the word of God being taught in the corporate worship gathering, then taking the opportunity to discuss it with our family or with other brothers and sisters over a Lord’s Day meal would probably help all of us to gain greater understanding and insight into that particular passage of Scripture. It also could be that Christian conversation around other activities where we discuss the things we are reading in our own daily study of scripture would help us to think through difficult theological issues. This is the same way Jesus and the disciples talked as they traveled in the gospels. Living in this time we ought to be extremely grateful for the vast resources we have, both personally and corporately, to study and learn what the greatest minds in the history of the Church have thought. We also have available (basically in real time) how other Godly Christians are applying the teaching of the Scripture to the same things that we are facing today. Teachers But even with all the tools and resources which are available to us virtually, God has always seen fit to provide His church with local pastors and teachers to educate the believers (Ephesians 4:11). We need to be grateful to God for giving us people who actually know us and our lives to instruct us in the truth and exhort us to apply the truth to our lives. I want to thank all of our Sunday School teachers who have labored hard in teaching so that the church could grow more health through the knowledge of God in His word. Thank you Bob King, Matthew Harness, Nancy Graves, James Tilley, Zach Massey, Sherry Jennings, Mary Wilson, Scarlet King, Samantha Tuell, Laura Ragsdale, Lucy Trammell, Shannon Hilmes, Sarah King, Debbie Blair, Ashley Harness, Robert Horton and Micheal Horton. Again, thank you for sacrificing so that we as a church could reap these benefits and learn more of Christ!  Gratitude
This is the month in our American culture when most folks are thinking about what they are thankful for and, hopefully, who they should be thankful to. I mentioned on Sunday how thankful I am for Marshall First Baptist Church. I know that there are many godly men who God could use to pastor this church (& I look forward to other brothers being raised up to labor alongside me), but I can’t imagine pastoring another church. As I said Sunday, MFBC doesn’t need me, but I need you all. This month, I intend to write on this theme of gratitude each week. I know, I’m innovative and original, lol. The reality is that I always get to feeling quite nostalgic this time of year and love making much of all that God has done. In truth, when we express our genuine gratitude for the situations and circumstances of our lives, we are actually pointing the attention not on the blessed gift but the amazing and glorious giver of all God gifts, our great Lord and God! The Voice In our passage this last Sunday the prophet Jonah referred to the voice of Thanksgiving (Jonah 2:9). He was speaking about how he would, even from the fish’s belly, worship God with gratitude for bringing up his life from the pit. Are you thankful for your voice? And do you use your voice for God’s glory? In asking these two questions I am not trying to be profound, but rather simple. There are at least three clear ways that we know God intends for us to use our voice for his glory. First, we should use our voice to talk about all the great things that He has done in us and for us. We are supposed to be witnesses of our relationship to Christ and what He has revealed in His word (1 Peter 2:9-10). We must be proclaiming that Jesus has freed us from our sin through His death on the cross and glorious resurrection. We need to be using our ability to communicate to make known who Christ is to those still waiting in the darkness. Second, we should begin using our voice to glorify God through prayers of Thanksgiving. In Jonah chapter 2, the only form of worship and sacrifice available to Jonah from the belly of the fish was the sacrifice of praise. Oh, how we need to be praying! And not just to receive things, but to recount all that we have received and witnessed from God’s hand in our lives and in our church. Each week when we have an opportunity to share in the church about all that God has done we should be ecstatic to relate the news that exalts His goodness, grace, and glory (Colossians 3:16-17)! The third way that we should be using our voices in praise and thanksgiving is the most obvious. Christians have always been a singing people. Even when you read the Scriptures you can tell the parts when the Apostles are singing out in praise even as they write or dictate their works. We know that worship is more than singing alone, but understand brethren it certainly isn’t less. We ought to use our voice to the maxim of our abilities to give Glory to God in song. For some of us that ability is limited, for others it is accentuated but God desires and desires for every voice to cry out in joyful song. Bold & Beautiful Voices As we enter this month of thanksgiving, I want to express great thankfulness and appreciation for those who God has gifted with musical talent and humble hearts to help the rest of us in worship. You of course know who I am talking about. Thank you Kevin, Kelly, Kristin, Ashley and Brady. You brothers and sisters serve the Lord not only with your natural talents, but also with your sweet & willing spirits. I’m sure that the whole church would echo this thankfulness for everything you all do. I also want to include a big thanks to Micheal and Robert who work hard in the booth to keep things going right with the audio and visual needs. Oftentimes, this kind of work only gets noticed when something goes wrong, but I want to say a heartfelt thank you to you men for your important ministry.  Time Change
At the time that I am writing this post, we are about to change our clocks back one hour. I know that most people do not like the practice of changing the clocks and this is something that people can be pretty opinionated about. There are a couple of things that we should probably keep in mind. First, the days will have the same number of hours of both light and dark regardless of the clock so you're not losing daylight that you would have had if the clock didn’t change. The other thing to remember is that if the clocks never changed, then they would stay standard time all the time, which is the time that we have in the winter months. This time of year does get us thinking about change. When you drive a vehicle, the transmission has to shift from one gear to another to allow the car to have the proper ratio and conversion of power from the engine to the wheels. (I’m not mechanically inclined so that could be stated more precisely.) In a similar way, you and I can be greatly helped by a shift in our thinking so that the way we are thinking and believing can drive us to godly behavior and action. RPM When talking about motors RPM refers to revolutions per minute. For the purposes of this article I am going to use those letters to start the three phrases that could help us to shift our hearts and minds so that we can glorify the Lord in our lives. Reliance on God’s Revelation Humanity is totally depraved. That does not mean that we are as evil and rebellious as we could be, but that we are sinful throughout our whole being (Romans 3:9-18;23). Because this is true, we cannot work our way to righteous standing with God. However, this fallen state extends not only to our moral actions and choices, but also to our minds. Our understanding, our intellectual capacities, and our reasoning abilities are also tainted by the deforming nature of our fallen state. This means that we cannot know God through human reason or philosophy or simply through the observation of the general revelation in creation (1 Corinthians 1:18-31). Rather, we must have the special revelation of the righteous character and nature of God in the Scriptures so that we can know God and worship Him rightly. We must have the illuminating presence of the Holy Spirit to understand the spiritual realities that can only be known by those who are spiritual (1 Corinthians 2:6-16). Plans According to God’s Purposes God is sovereign, and He reigns providentially over His universe with distinct purposes. The universe is not random. Order pervades all of the creation (Isaiah 55:8-9). You even hear the evidence of this when unbelievers speak of how things in nature are designed or wired for certain things. Evolutionary theory cannot account for specificity of design through natural selection. Rather, in creation, what is clear is that God is accomplishing His good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13). Everything in God’s universe has meaning in bringing Him glory, one way or another. This means that nothing in your life is inconsequential. Nothing happening to you or being done by you is unimportant because everything matters. Minds Focused on Eternity with God Ultimately, probably the greatest thing that can help finite beings like ourselves to shift our hearts and minds toward the grandeur of the transcendent God is to have an eternity focused perspective. We need to be thinking about things from an eternal point of view. Temporal thinking will always be tempting us to take shortcuts and resort to pragmatic methods instead of opting for faithful obedience. But our home and citizenship are in heaven and so our perspective should be for the long range not just the next step (Philippians 3:20-21). Even when all we can see through the fog of our present suffering is the next step we must remember that there is an eternal glory that we cannot now fully comprehend (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).  Halloween
This time of year most kids and many adults are deciding what they are going to be for Halloween. Of course, no one is actually going to become something other than what they already are. In fact, what they are going to do is dress up and pretend to be someone or something else. This is a natural part of normal child development. All children pretend to be something they are not in the regular types of play. This is actually how we learn many things about how we should behave. A boy tries to mimic his dad and in the process learns to actually be a man. But, in between, he is acting like something that he is not. It is a little more strange with adults though. This phenomenon of adults wanting to dress up can probably fit into a couple of different categories. First, is simply the desire to have some fun. Just a harmless gathering of friends fellowshiping and laughing about who came up with the best or worst ideas. But for others this is not so simple or innocent. This game of pretending for many is a real way of escaping life even if only for a night. This attitude reveals a couple of crucial problems. One of these problems is that these individuals are struggling with a deep sense of unfulfillment. The other issue that comes to mind is that the person may be masking some deep pain or trauma. In either of these situations the cover up cannot and will not bring genuine hope and healing. Cover ups In the case of the person who is seeking an escape, the problem lies in what they are trying to escape from. These people are dealing with problems or stress or conflicts that make their regular life unbearable. However, when they take off the costume the problems are still there. These dilemmas cannot be solved by simply covering them up, but rather must be met with real solutions. The problem with escaping to fantasies is that the real world problems don’t get solved and usually only grow more destructive, depressing and even deadly. For those who are seeking to cover up some deep pain or trauma it is important to realize that the only real hope is found in a proper diagnosis which can lead to the right cure. If the pain is a result of one's own sin and consequences then the only way forward is not to hide away but rather to confess the sin in genuine repentance. But for the person who has been victimized by the sin of someone else the greatest antiseptic is the light of the gospel. Where that sin can be dealt with in both justice and grace and true healing can come from the Holy Spirit. Coverings The point that I am making is not that sin doesn't need to be covered, but rather that coverings are insufficient. When Adam and his chatty bride found themselves naked in the garden they tried to fashion their own covers to vale the wickedness of their sin against God. The problem is that their puny leafy patterns only made the surety of their sin more obvious when confronted by the Lord. The sown leaves could not hide the guilt and shame of their disobedience to the One who made them and loved them (Genesis 3:8-11). But when God showed up, while a curse was necessary, He also extended to them great grace. He made coverings for them that could temporarily and symbolically cover their shame and guilt until the suitable robe would be ready. God made for them coverings of skin by killing animals. Death was the penalty their sin had incurred.(Genesis 3:21) But the skinswere not enough to fully finally cover and remove the stain of sin. Instead depraved humanity needed a greater dress. Therefore we need to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ. However, the garments of Christ’s righteousness are not just some pretend costume that we put on to appear righteous but rather these clothes remove the stain of sin so that we become the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:16-21). But the only way for us to put on these good garments is by repentance and faith in Jesus, whereby we trust in Him to cleanse us and save us based on His amazing grace and perfect account.  Not the Clothing Store
Today I want to talk about the gap, but I am not talking about the store that you used to find in the mall. (Kids, malls were these places where you could shop in a bunch of different stores all in one building. This was way back in the stone ages before Amazon.) So, if I’m not talking about the store what do I mean by the gap. Well the gap is the chasm that exists relationally between two parties. For example, a couple whose marriage is in trouble might need a counselor or a wise other couple to stand in the gap and help bring about reconciliation. Oftentimes in legal disputes attorneys can stand in the gap and help negotiate equitable solutions without coming all the way into the courtroom. But in the scripture we are confronted with the grand canyon of relational separations in the gap between the holy and righteous God of the universe and the whole of sinful, wicked humanity including you and I. So, who is going to stand in the gap for us? Not Moses In the Old Testament the Lord provided a leader who stood in the gap for His people. Moses was extraordinary because he served as a type of prophet and judge over God’s people. Probably the best word to capture Moses' role in the redemptive purpose of God is that he was a deliverer. The Lord used Moses as His instrument to deliver His people out of the land of Egypt, out of the grip of Pharaoh, and out of the wilderness wandering leading them right up to the entrance into the promised land. During this time, Moses spoke to the people on God’s behalf and went up onto the mountain and into the tent of meeting to meet with God, so that he could speak to the people the words of God. Moses is the prototype of a savior in the Old Testament. Yet, in Jeremiah 15, God says that even if Moses were to stand in with the people He would not be with them because of how they have broken His commandments and hated all His ways. We might think that He was only referring to the generation that was going to be taken into exile in Babylon, but the reality is that every generation of sinful humanity is guilty of this kind of sin, blasphemy, and rebellion. Moses was not a sufficient Savior because, while God used him to bring temporal deliverance, the people didn’t stay saved. Not Samuel At the end of the period of the judges God again raises up a savior. As a matter of fact, the judges are a period where many flawed and imperfect people served as judges and saviors of God’s people. This is a reminder that they always needed a true Savior who could deliver them from their sin and rebellion. Samuel becomes the man of God who stands in the gap during his ministry between God and humanity. However, Samuel was also not the complete savior because He also was not able to bring to the generations of Israel a lasting peace or secure salvation. Again in Jeremiah 15 God also states that even if Samuel stood before Him these people including us all would not be able to remain in His awesome presence because of our sin and iniquity. Only Jesus But praise be to God He has provided a mediator who can stand in the gap for us. Paul says that Jesus being the God-man is able to be the one mediator(1 Timothy 2:5-6). Because Jesus is one who stands in for humanity in genuine perfection while also representing the radiance and holiness of the invisible God (Hebrews 1:1-3). Jesus is the only Savior able to save and deliver sufficiently, completely, and surely. The point is simple: Jesus Saves! He does not try to save or simply want to save or make salvation possible but instead He saves fully and completely everyone who trusts in Him. Know this - all others, those ‘would be’ saviors and tempting idols, will not ultimately be able to save you. Only Jesus can save you. And when Jesus saves and delivers you it’s for keeps. While both Moses and Samuel failed to keep the people saved Jesus and kept His people forever!  Simple
Is it ok to just want to be happy? Often people, even Christians will say or think that all they want is to be happy. However, happiness is not a great enough purpose to actually make you happy. The reality is that if we live simply to be happy we will inevitably end up not being satisfied, fulfilled, or content. Ultimately we will be saying with Solomon that all is vanity (Ecclesiastes 12:8). My point is simply that chasing happiness is the surest route to misery. Joy is the outcome of abiding in the Lord! As believers remain in Christ and fellowship with the Father and the Son (1 John 1:3-4) through the activity of the Holy Spirit, then true contentment, joy, and even happiness are truly possible.(Romans 14:17) It is also important to note that God loves His people too much to only desire our happiness. That may sound strange because many well meaning parents will boast that they just want their children to be happy. However, Christians parents ought to want far more for their children than simply happiness. Instead we should desire for our children to grow in holiness and reverence for God so that they will be used for His glory. Truly all people will be for His glory in one way or another but we desire that our children and ourselves would delight in the Lord (Psalm 37:4). Service Often in an effort to achieve happiness what we will do is seek to live easy and even lazy lives. We will seek comfort and satisfaction from every desire or craving. But the outcome of this kind of resistance free or go with the flow kind of lifestyle is that we will lose our strength as our muscles become atrophied from our lack of diligent effort. To live truly fulfilling lives we need the strength that comes from exercising real effort. We also need the health that comes from practicing genuine restraint. The fruit of the Spirit does include the attributes of patience and self control (Galatians 5:22). The point is that as Christ is formed in us (Galatians 4:19) and as we are conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29) we grow in our experience of joy, peace, and hope regardless of our external circumstances. As a matter of fact it is a great privilege that God would count us faithful and allow us a place of service (1 Timothy 1:12). God does not call us into service to meet some need in Him for as God He is all sufficient in Himself and in need of nothing. And God does not bring us into service simply because of the needs of others for He could certainly meet those needs without us. But instead God brings us into service so that we can get the benefits of giving and serving (Acts 20:35). Sacrifice Ultimately, we see even in the life of the Lord Jesus Himself that sacrifice precedes joy. Remember that Jesus was looking to the joy when he voluntarily went to the cross enduring the violence and despising the shame for us. He was set on the culmination of the kingdom for the glory of God (Hebrews 12:2). Even so we are also called to sacrifice, not because God wants to take something away from us, but rather he wants to produce something in us for our good and His glory (1 Peter 1:3-9)!  Pledge
In a world that encourages an insatiable appetite for what is new and fresh we can easily lose our sense of commitment and connection. We see that when we face struggles or difficulties it is easier to just move on to the next opportunity than work through our current problems. As our attention spans become shorter our level of dedication is weakened. This presents a couple of detrimental problems. The first problem is that we will develop a genuine phobia of commitment. Pledging ourselves to something or someone in this state of mind feels more like a cage than an adventure. You often hear that many people today are delaying marriage because one or both parties are afraid of the commitment. Even with the legal arrangement of marriage many if not most couples and families still operate like joint partners more than members of an inseparable union. This behavior is not unreasonable because with the high rate of divorce and the culture of serial dating and unwed cohabitation, individuals are training themselves to expect the relationship to fail. One can usually see this phenomenon when people passionately declare their devotion today and by tomorrow they are ready to abandon their relationship. This can also be true of people joining the church with honeymoon expectations that now they have found the right church only to fall away quickly when they realize that those people are real life sinners just like in every other local church. The second problem is a genuine lack of ability to stay amidst a real hardship. Dedication and devotion are not superpowers that some people are born with. Instead, true commitment is a learned skill. We need to practice staying with the right commitments. I often hear folks argue that this is why their family has to miss church so that their children can learn to be committed to their favorite sport or hobby. RIDICULOUS! If we really want our family and our children to know commitment it will be when we say no to those things because the right worship of God is not just a priority but our highest priority! I believe that we best build this skill of dedicated devotion through simplifying our lives so that the most important priority being Christ and His kingdom can be at the center of everything we do as individuals, families, and local churches. Long Haul Maybe what we really need is to ourselves be devoted to the long haul. It’s easy to begin to covet the lush green grass just beyond the confines of our divinely appointed fences. We must become people who are not always looking to some new place or path but who are ready to settle in and put down roots for the long term. I am a big proponent of covenant membership in the local church. If you are a Christian, you should be a member of a local church. There of course can be seasons when you have moved or some event has necessitated a change in churches but when this happens you should be intentional about seeking out a family of faith. But then you need to join to stay. I believe that one of the problems in the church today is that many pastors are not prepared to devote themselves to the seasons of hardships and the long term life of the local church. Because this is the case they cannot inspire others to plant themselves in the church either. In any case we all both undershepherds and sheep need to be committed to the flock with which the Chief Shepherd has placed us and seek to follow Him together and do His perfect will!  Harold?
Our mission's focus for this past month of September 2022 has been my good friend Harold Smith’s ministry to pastorless churches and church less pastors. But if you look back at the title of this post the subject matter is not going to be men named Harold, but rather the task of proclaiming the gospel message. Now Harold is quite the preacher, but I want to focus this discussion on what preaching is and who should do it and where it should be done. What is Preaching? The Greek word that is translated as preach in the New Testament is ‘kerysso’ meaning to herald, proclaim, or publish. The idea is to make a message public. This does not mean that the proclamation must be a monologue, only that the publishing and proclamation of the message is disseminated to the public. This is interesting in light of our modern connection of preaching with the gospel ministry of those placed in the pastoral role. It would seem that in the Scripture the pastors were given the work of teaching the saints the doctrines of the Christian faith in the gathering of the church. IF (and this is probably an arguable ‘if’) the early church meetings were just for the believers and possibly some guests then those meetings would be best described as semi private. In this case the task of gospel proclamation would not be the Lord’s day work of the elders in the church meeting, but actually the task of the believers going out into the world to share the gospel with the lost people in the public places. This kind of proclamation was done with large groups such as when Peter and the Apostles proclaimed the gospel on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 and as Paul does in the Areopagus in Athens in Acts 17. These are examples of the public proclamation of the Gospel by called and equipped men for the spreading of the message of Jesus Christ. However, gospel proclamation is also done in small groups and even with individuals. Take for example the case of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8 where Philip comes near to this individual in his chariot and shares the good news of the gospel with him from the Scriptures. This is an example of heralding the gospel, even though it was with an individual and conversational, not with a group and monological. Who should be preaching? I want to be clear that what I am arguing in this post is that the way the New Testament uses the word preaching is not the same as the teaching role taking place in the believers gatherings of the New Testament. However, since most of us have public meetings, then what we are doing in those meetings is rightly called preaching or proclamation because of the public nature of the meeting. However in the church meeting only Biblically qualified men should be allowed to proclaim the message because that is the clear instruction of Scripture in 1 Timothy 2:11-12 and 1 Corinthians 14:33-35. Clearly God has ordained distinctions in the roles of men and women in the church gathering. But what about beyond the church gathering? First, the example of the New Testament is for the men to do a kind of public proclamation that would bring about the physical persecution such as we saw with the Apostles. But it is not only the Apostles who preached the gospel openly but the other Christians did as well. Consider Stephen the deacon who was speaking the gospel message in Acts 6 and 7. Stephen is not an Apostle or a pastor and he is not standing behind a pulpit or in a Lord’s day gathering but is proclaiming the gospel to the lost in his context. However we do see women included in helping especially their husband in sharing the gospel with those as they have opportunity. Consider Priscilla and Aquila teaching Apollos a fuller understanding of the gospel in Acts 18. Also we know that women are uniquely equipped and gifted to nurture the hearts of children and share with other women the gracious good news of Jesus Christ! Ultimately, it is the task of all Christians having been equipped (Ephesians 4:11-14) through the ministry of the word in the church to take this message out into the world and to the lost and needy sinners. Where should the gospel be preached? I'm going to keep the answer to this last question short and simple. The gospel must be proclaimed anywhere and everywhere to anyone and everyone! |