The Marks of a God-Given Ministry (Part 2 of 2)

Pastors are men on a mission They may have different teaching styles and different personalities. Colossians chapter 1 outlines a pattern for every pastor's ministry. What should a pastor be doing? Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg examines the purpose and pleasure of a pastor's work. We begin with Paul's words to the church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. He said, When I came to you, I did not come with impressive words of man's wisdom, nor with superior eloquence. I recognized that the Jews demand a sign and the Greeks seek wisdom.

I assessed the consumer expectations, understood perfectly what it was they wanted, and determined to give them nothing of what they wanted. Instead, when I came to you, I came in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my words were not wise and impressive, as I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Why? Because that is the only answer to the drugged-out teenage kid. That is ultimately the only answer to the self-assertive, proud businessman. That is the only answer to the fractured family and to the disintegrating culture. The world says, Do something dramatic. The church in many places says, Do something political. And I want you to know that on the basis of this pattern of ministry, I have done what I am doing, and if God spares me, I want you to know it's gonna be just as boring.

It is the same mission, it is gonna be the same message, and it is gonna be the same methodology. And if that should be something other than it is desired, then so be it. But I have no other strings to my bow, I have no other mission than the one I have received, I have no other message than the one I must proclaim, and I have no other apostolic pattern of methodology than the one that has been given. Well, that's a word or two about the pastor's pattern. Let's spend less time on the pastor's purpose. What is the pastor's purpose in ministry? If, as we have noted, his posture on the one hand is to make the Word of God fully known, he is equally concerned, and so he says, to see the people of God become fully mature. Isn't that what he's saying there in verse 28?

We proclaim, admonish, teach with all wisdom, so that—it's a Hinna clause in the Greek—so that we may present everyone perfect or mature in Christ. Now, the phraseology that he uses here is in the present continuous tense. In other words, he is speaking about continual and habitual action. He is speaking not about a kind of slam-bam-jam approach, whereby as a result of slick talk and instantaneous dramatic results, everything is transformed.

He is talking about that which takes place over a period of time. And if I've learned one thing in pastoral ministry, I've learned this. You better minister with a sense of history. And what I mean by that is simply this—and I tell my colleagues all the time—as much as we may desire to have a significant opportunity at this point in history, all that we may be being called of God to do at this point is to keep our foot in the door for another who will come after us, who will be manifestly blessed, and who will enjoy a great ingathering of souls. So that whether we are apparently successful on the basis of numbers or whatever criteria may be used by people, we do not use that as our own personal manner of assessment. What we do use is to see whether the people who are under our care are growing to maturity, or whether we have a congregation of people that are always on their training wheels, who can never go very far from the door, who are not being prepared to step out and to share their faith.

And the responsibility of a father and a mother is to prepare their children for the day when, having taken off the training wheels of emotional responsibility and financial security and so on, the child is able to go off on their own. And that, says Paul, is my purpose. And that is why he says I am involved in admonishing, in verse 28. That is, to correct through instruction and warning. That is why I teach as I do.

And he taught in all these places to the point of his own virtual demise. Not because he was thrilled in hearing his own voice, but because he was convinced about the message. Do you know how tired I get of hearing my own voice? You say, well, we hear it. Yeah, but I hear it all the time.

And now, courtesy of Truth for Life, I hear it every day when I'm in my study as I walk the corridors, coming out as the radio programs are produced. And I'm not enamored by the sound of my voice. I'm not thrilled by the quality of the messages.

I keep them so that I can cry over them when I think about how bad many of them have been. Because the issue is, on a cornerstone out here when you entered, God has planned to exalt above all things his name and his Word. And the ultimate issue is whether the people who are being fed are becoming mature, whether they are making the connection between doctrine and discipleship, whether their faith is beginning to function, whether they are understanding why it is that the instruction of God's Word is so crucial for their own growth as Christians. And I want you to know, it is a struggle. It's a struggle to be prayerful. It's a struggle to be positive. It's a struggle to keep going in light of setbacks, in light of discouragements.

When the people that you thought were the starters on your team have quit showing up even at the training practices, when folks that you thought you could bank on for always turn and just walk right out of your life, it's a struggle. I don't say that to be encouraging any kind of condolence on your part. I just say it to be honest. To stay in pastoral ministry in one church week after week after week after week. Now, why would you?

And how could you? The answer is right in the verse. Because he is struggling, he says in verse 28, 29, not with his energy but with God's energy. Because ultimately it's not man's struggle to struggle, it's God's enabling which gives us the ability to keep going.

And that's as true for you as it is for me. And to the end that my purpose would be in pastoral ministry to see you in maturity, I share with Paul the conviction that these things ought to be happening. And then in chapter 2, my purpose is, number one, that you might be encouraged in your hearts. That you would be encouraged. That at the very core of everything, you would be strengthened, you would be stirred, and you would be picked up.

Even when you get one on the back of the head that is a woo, that still you would understand that the purpose is that you would be encouraged. Even when we have to admonish, and when we have to warn, and when we have to speak with forcefulness, still that the people of God would understand that his word comes in order to encourage us. That's why the lovely song we've been learning from Philippians 2, 1, is so nice in our congregation. If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, any comfort in his love, then make my joy complete by being of the same mind with one another. Where, what is the source of encouragement?

It is being united with the Lord Jesus Christ. And mercifully, God anticipates that the encouragements within the body of Christ will come from multiple sources. I love some of the unsung heroes of the New Testament, don't you? I'm looking forward so much to meeting this chap, Tychicus. I like his name, for a start. I wouldn't call my son that, but I do like his name, the sort of ring that it has to it. Tychicus—they probably called him Titch for short.

I'm sure they didn't call him Cuss. And he's mentioned in Ephesians 6, 21. Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you everything so that you also may know how I am and what I'm doing.

Now, here's why I'm sending him to you. It's for this very purpose that you might know how we are and that he may encourage you. You get the same thing in Colossians 4 and in verse 8. I am sending Tychicus to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts. It's surely obvious that Paul was unable personally to offer the same level of encouragement to everybody to whom he wrote in all these churches that he established.

And it would be an unrealistic expectation on the part of the people who were under his care and under his tutelage to feel somehow or another that unless they were personally encouraged as a result of personal indirection, that somehow or another, this was not the place for them to be. I want you to be encouraged in your hearts. I want you to be united in love. That's what he says, united in love.

Not mushy sentimentality, but love that is formed by truth. Making sure that we're speaking the truth in love, Ephesians 4.15. Making sure that we are united on the basis of our understanding of God's truth and our preparedness to tell the truth.

Whenever the belt of truth is left off in the armor, chaos will ensue. And love and truth are always interwoven. It's very important that you speak the truth to one another. That when you have concern about another person, a brother or a sister, that you speak to that person, and it is important when you're spoken to that you respond in honesty and you do not lie by your silence.

For failure to do so will set in process a bad viral infection which will lay the body sooner or later flat on its back. Paul says of the Colossians, I want you to be encouraged in your hearts. I want you to be united in your love. And I want you to be complete in your understanding.

Indeed, the first to frame the way for complete understanding. He says encouraged hearts and united in love gives way to the riches of complete understanding. Because, you see, if you're not encouraged in your heart and united in your love, then you've got a bad attitude. And when you have a bad attitude, you can't take in the Word of God. And when you don't take in the Word of God, you can't have a full understanding.

And it all fits together perfectly. That's why we're laboring hard to say to you, doctrine or teaching of the Bible is so very, very important. We could do series that are different from what we do. We could do as many other places do and simply have how to do this and how to do that, and the next six weeks, well, how to be the perfect dad, and the following three weeks will be how to be the perfect husband and so on. And from time to time we do, and in classes and in different ways we will.

But we're not going to make that the staple diet. And the reason is that while there are a lot of men out there who feel that what they need is a course on how to be the perfect husband or how to be the right kind of dad, what you actually need is a course in biblical doctrine. See, what you need is to understand who God is and what man is in relationship to God. Because once you begin to work that out, once you begin to understand the first three chapters of the book of Romans, and understand that all men are accountable before God, and then understand the wonder of justification, and then understand what it means to be sanctified and growing grace in the knowledge of Christ, and understand what it means that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, and understand that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, suddenly when you begin to put all of that superstructure together, your ability to be a husband and a father and all these other things begins to fall into line.

That doesn't mean that you won't benefit from the books or you don't need the answer to your question, but it's not really your question. And the church in the United States of America at the moment is a kind of tertiary-level experience, a bunch of pragmatic how-tos, and it is about a fall on its face, because people are not taking the time to put the foundations of biblical doctrine in correctly. And as soon as the winds and the waves blow and beat upon the house, it will fall with a great crash. It's not as spectacular to spend such times in the foundations.

It's not as spectacular to have such slow growth. It's not as spectacular to have things done in this way. And the only reason is because it is our express purpose that you would be encouraged in heart, united in love, and complete in your understanding. That's why he says in verse 4, the reason I'm telling you this is so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. Isn't it interesting when your children come home from a trip, you know, one of the first times that they went out in one of those bazaars or in one of those open markets, and they had a little bit of money in their pocket, and they come back and tell you how they got this great deal on such-and-such a thing, and, wow, man, the guy was gonna charge, you know, $15 for it, and then he said he wouldn't charge $15.

He was gonna charge $12, and then he knocked it down from $12, and finally they bought it for $5, and they showed a sorry piece of merchandise to you, and it isn't worth $1.50. And they have been deceived by high-sounding arguments. And so what do you do? You try and walk with them and walk through that experience and show them and guide them and nurture them so they won't be trapped.

Loved ones, that's what this is all about. And as you think about the instruction of God's Word from the pulpit week by week, listen to this. Learn to examine all the teaching on the truthfulness of its content rather than on the attractiveness of its packaging. Learn to examine the teaching on the truthfulness of its content, not on the attractiveness of its packaging.

Nothing is as dangerous as feeble reasoning allied to fast talking. And unless a congregation has been nurtured and instructed in the things of biblical doctrine, then they will be suckers for feeble reasoning allied to fast talking. Well, the last thought is simply the pastor's pleasure in ministry. What is the pleasure in ministry?

Well, goodness, it is so many we could stay here all day. But the one that he mentions in verse 5 is so clear. He says, although I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, and I delight to see how orderly you are and how firm your faith in Christ is. He uses two military metaphors here in these verbs, or adverbs. The orderliness to which he refers is the orderliness of people in the ranks of the army.

It is the opposite to chaotic disarray. I have never served in the forces. I've listened to my father ad nauseam tell me about him serving in the forces, and so I feel as though I've actually been there. But I do know this, that in that boot camp, in that training period, if I had it correct, the sergeant major does not get the recruits in and say to his friends, you know, now, this is George, and he has a bunch of donuts, and here is Fred, and he's going to be bringing the coffee and the lemonade, whatever you might like, and what I want you to do is I want you all to get together and sort of cozy up to one another and tell each other about stuff, and I want you to get so you like one another, and that you're all a happy group of campers, and then finally I'll come back in a few days, and when you're all perfectly united and encouraged and committed and devoted and stuff, then we'll see if we can go out and fight the army, you know, fight the war.

It's a ridiculous idea, isn't it? What does the guy do? He says, all right, folks, my name is Fred. I'm your sergeant major. Sit up, Jones, and shut up.

You're in the army now. And then he calls for absolute unquestioning commitment to the standing orders, and he doesn't give a rip whether Fred likes Bill or Bill wants to spend the rest of his life with Rodney. It doesn't even focus in his thinking because he's got a battle to fight and he's got an army to get together and they need to be orderly, you see. And once they get in order underneath the commanding officer and in obedience to the standing orders and they go out and understand who the real enemy is, then a number of things happen. One, they don't fight each other. They don't fight each other. In downtime, armies may fight each other when they get the chance to go play ping pong, etc., but not when the howitzer is pointing right up their nose. Every time you have a church that fights with each other, I guarantee you one thing absolutely certain, that church has lost sight of the real enemy.

But here's an interesting thing that happens. Out of that orderly array and out of that unified commitment to the commanding officer and the standing orders, what do you find when you go into McDonald's and there are old guys there with the hats and the badges on them? You find when they open up their wallet, every so often out come those old army photographs, tattered at the corners, guys they haven't seen for forty-five years, whom they grew to love with a passion, not because they both went to the same school, not because they both had the same general interests in life, not because they had a kind of homogeneous approach to things, but because they were called underneath the standing orders. Do you want to understand what it is to be perfectly united in mind and in thought?

Submit to the commanding officer and pay attention to the standing orders. You'll make friends like you've never made before. You'll make the best friends you ever had in your life. You'll make friends for eternity.

Stand firm. He says, I'm so delighted. I'm delighted to see how orderly you are and I'm thrilled to see how firm your faith is. That is Alistair Begg on Truth for Life. If you're a frequent listener, you have heard me mention our mission, which is to teach the Bible in a way that is clear and relevant. One of the outcomes of that mission is that pastors will be encouraged in their ministry, united in God's word with their congregation. Today's book recommendation, titled Devoted to God's Church by Sinclair Ferguson, explains what God's word has to say about the church and about your role in it. In fact, Alistair and other leaders at Parkside have found this book so insightful that Alistair is here today to tell us about it.

Well, this is my pleasure, Bob, because anything written by Sinclair Ferguson is at the very top of my reading list. And we as a church leadership have been reading Devoted to God's Church because it is so profoundly helpful. Sinclair quite challengingly makes the point that instead of our church involvement being an addendum to a life well lived, it is actually at the very heart of what it means to be living the Christian life. And even our physical family concerns are set within the context of the local church. These are reminders that all of us need and they are clearly delineated in this really helpful book, Devoted to God's Church.

Thanks, Alistair. If you would like to request your copy of Devoted to God's Church, visit truthforlife.org slash donate or give us a call at 888-588-7884. Again, that's 888-588-7884. You can also mail your donation along with your request for Sinclair's book by writing to us at Truth for Life, P.O.

Box 398000, Cleveland, Ohio 44139. I'm Bob Lapine. When a group of people are facing a hard time, it's their leaders who often set the tone for how they'll respond. You see it in business or in politics and also in churches. Tomorrow we'll learn how Nehemiah responded to devastating news and how he led God's people through tragedy. Be sure to join us then. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.