Dakota Community Church
February 24, 2013
Grace at Work - 15
Pastor Teacher 2
Ephesians 4:11-13
11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 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.
From: Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words:
Pastor - Poimen - <1,,4166,poimen> "a shepherd, one who tends herds or flocks"
Teacher - Didaskalos - <1,,1320,didaskalos> is rendered "teacher" or "teachers"
The What - The pastor, elder, is to shepherd God’s flock; an underling of the Chief Shepherd.
The How - The shepherding God’s flock is accomplished by the teaching of God’s Word.
The preacher is to take what Christ has spoken in His Word and faithfully convey the meaning of that Word to the people. The Bible describes preaching as reasoning from the Scriptures
Acts 17:1-3
Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”
Acts 28:23-24
When they had appointed a day for him, they came to him at his lodging in greater numbers. From morning till evening he expounded to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets. 24 And some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved.
When a preacher faithfully exposits God’s Word, his teaching must be regarded and obeyed as if it were the very words of Christ.
When Jesus sent the 72 out to proclaim the news of His arrival he told them that the person who rejects the faithfully preached word rejects the Lord Himself.
Luke 10:16
“The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”
This does not mean that pastors are free to make up doctrine or to add to or soften the law in any way. They do not have authority in themselves. They cannot call for obedience to their own opinions because the only authority they wield resides in Gods Word.
From “Theoblogy” by Tony Jones
To pretend that those are two virgins walking down the aisle, approaching the coital bed for the first time is uncommonly naive And it seems to me that Jesus was lots of things, but he wasn’t naive to the world in which he lived. He did, however, both preach and live prophetically within that culture. He didn’t take it as it was, without pushing back against it. In his day, it was that tax collectors were ostracized and that men shouldn’t pluck heads of grain on the Sabbath. Today, sex is everywhere. It’s unavoidable.
A new sexual ethic for Christians is desperately needed. I for one am going to work on that. Will you join me?
Read the entire article:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/tonyjones/2013/02/06/is-it-time-for-christians-to-celebrate-pre-marital-sex/
Christian pastors are not free to decide on “a new sexual ethic for Christians”. The pastor is a town crier, he is a herald, a messenger boy - he delivers what is given to him, not his own ideas, imaginations, or summations.
If the average Christian really understood the authority of biblical preaching he or she would take preaching much more seriously and so would the average pastor!
A sermon that is truly a sermon is not to be delivered or received like some seminar or a classroom lecture, for behind it lays the authority and voice of the resurrected King.
The Bible gives strong warnings to beware of “false shepherds” who do not have the welfare of the flock at heart but are doing what they do for selfish gain or from selfish motive. These false pastors are interested in gaining and maintaining control over others in order to achieve their own purposes.
Because of the unfortunate existence of these self-seeking leaders, there must also come a time when we disobey man in order to obey God.
Christians are not to obey if the pastor is contradicting the Word and will of God.
Acts 4:18-20
So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, 20 for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”
Today evangelicals tend to downplay the importance of the sermon altogether in favor of entertainment. We definitely look for scratching of itching ears. Often this desire leads to scriptural “off-roading” by our pastors and teachers - which is the doorway to false teaching.
A pastor-teacher is mishandling the word of God when:
1.) Proof texting and/or using a text as a springboard to unrelated topics.
This happens when a pastor has a point that he wants to make and comes to the Bible already convinced that his point is scriptural.
Example:
The pastor wants to teach that God is not an angry or vengeful God, He is full of love and joy and happiness. He selects the following passage reading only the first part of verse 4:
Psalm 2:1-4
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” 4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. 5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, 6 “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”
In truth the scriptures reveal that God is loving and joyful - perfectly so! He is also absolutely Just and Holy and so he judges sin and does not allow the guilty to go unpunished. Your sin will be punished, the sentence served by you or substitutionally by Christ. This fact in no way diminishes the loving joyful goodness of God.
More Serious Example:
Genesis 22:14
So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide” [Jehovah Jireh]; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
All manner of things have been claimed to be within the will of God based on this passage but it not about us getting what we want out of life from God - this is about the lamb of God.
2.) Indulging in the highly popular practice of narcissistic eisegesis.
From “Letter of Marque” by Chris Rosebrough:
How to Narcigete Any Bible Story In 4 Easy Steps
Primary Assumption: Every Bible story is about YOU. And, since YOU struggle with setbacks, problems and challenges that keep YOU from achieving YOUR maximal greatness that means that the Bible is really all about giving YOU a road map that YOU can follow to achieve YOUR dreams and god-given destiny.
Step 1 - Read a Bible Story.
Step 2 - Identify the hero and the villain(s) in the story.
Step 3 - Identify yourself with the hero (who also happens to be on a journey toward greatness and achieving his god-given destiny, just like you).
Identify your current problems, challenges and setbacks with the villain(s) in the story.
Step 4 - Identify the key action taken by the hero to defeat the villain. Allegorize that action by calling it a 'principle' and then challenge people to 'apply this principle' in their lives in order to defeat the problems, challenges and setbacks in their lives so that they can achieve greatness.
Read the entire article:
http://www.letterofmarque.us/2012/12/how-to-narcigete-any-bible-story.html
3.) Expounding on insights gained from pop-psychology, business leadership or other popular media.
There is a great deal of excellent and helpful material available today - the Sunday morning Christian pulpit is not the place for it. We are called to preach the gospel!
Conclusion
A pastor-teacher must be able and willing to confront the enemies of the church and the bleating of straying sheep. This takes courage and a willingness to fight for the faith at a time when the concept of a pastor as shepherd who uses God’s Word as a rod to protect the sheep has all but disappeared.
Pastors who diligently uphold sound doctrine are often accused of being unloving and harsh but it is those who expose the sheep to the wolves that are actually being cruel.
PowerPoint available (Free of charge) on request dcormie@mts.net
Follow Dan on twitter: @DanCormie
