Those Who Preach Moses, the Prophets & Apostles

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins in salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St.

Luke chapter 16 verses 19 through 31. Jesus said, There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen who feasted sumptuously every day.

At his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table.

Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side.

The rich man also died and was buried in Hades. Being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.

He called out, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.

Abraham said, Child, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things and Lazarus in like manner bad things.

But now he is comforted here and you are in anguish. And besides all of this, between us and you is a great chasm that has been fixed in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able and none may cross from there to us.

And he said, I beg you, Father, to send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them lest they also come into this place of torment.

But Abraham said, They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. And he said, No, Father Abraham.

But if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent. And he said to him, If they do not hear

Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.

In the name of Jesus. Today we're going to be talking about pastors.

Yeah. Now, have you ever been to a church where they had a pastor of parking lots, a pastor of finance, a pastor of this, that or the other?

The pastor of chief cook and bottle washer. We live in a day where people have taken the name pastor, and they pretty much slapped it on just about any job description.

The problem is, is that pastor is not a title. Pastor is an office.

It's the office of overseer that we will hear. And the reason why God has given us this office that we will learn is so that people will be brought to penitent faith in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, that their faith will be strengthened, and ultimately that they will pass through that last portal, as we were sung in our hymn to eternal life with Christ.

So let me frame my sermon today by reminding you of the end of that awful story we read in Luke chapter 16, the story of a man who finds himself in the flames of Hades.

And this was a man who had no penitent faith. He did not trust in Christ. In fact, he lived only for himself.

And you'll note this important theological point. The man's name is never given. And the reason for this is simple.

If your name is not written in the Lamb's book of life, you go to eternity in hell, nameless.

And so we hear Abraham saying to this fellow, they have

Moses and they have the prophets. Let them hear them. And he said, no, father,

Abraham, if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent. And he said to him, if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced that someone should rise from the dead.

And Abraham's right. Think about the day of the resurrection. Think about what happened in Jerusalem with the chief priests and those who were responsible for putting

Christ to death. They knew the grave was empty. And what did they say? Ah, the disciples stole the body.

How does faith come to us? Scripture's clear on this in Romans chapter 10. It says faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of Christ.

Now let me remind you how our Lutheran confessions, the Augsburg Confession, summarizes the chief doctrine of Christianity and then its relation to the office of the ministry.

Here's what it says in the Augsburg Confession, Article 4. It is taught among us that we cannot obtain the forgiveness of sins and righteousness before God by our own merits, our own works, our own satisfactions, but we receive forgiveness of sins and become righteous before God by grace for Christ's sake through faith.

When we believe that Christ suffered for us and that for his sake our sin is forgiven and righteousness and eternal life are then given to us.

For God will regard and reckon this faith as righteousness. And then it cites two passages of Scriptures to which we all say amen, amen.

This is small catechism stuff. Salvation is by grace through faith. It is not a result of works so that no one may boast.

If you pay attention to the next article, Article 5, to obtain such faith.

What kind of faith is this? Saving faith. To obtain such faith God has instituted the office of the ministry that has provided the gospel and the sacraments.

Through these as through means he gives the Holy Spirit who works faith when and where he pleases and those who hear the gospel.

And the gospel teaches that we have a gracious God, not by our own merits but by the merit of Christ when we believe this.

Now you may have heard people talk about the church recently if you listen to Christian radio or even watch

Christian television, and I strongly advise you not to watch Christian television. But you may have heard, oh,

Christianity, the church is a movement. It's not an institution. Ha!

That's not true. The church is an institution. It is not a movement. It is an institution set up by God.

And to this day there exists a couple of offices that need to be filled.

One of them is the office of pastor, which is one of the reasons why we recognize this office, and we cover our pastor up to make sure that he doesn't get uppity and things like that.

But all of this is given to us by God so that men and women can obtain saving faith through the preaching of the

Word, that they may receive the Lord's body and blood for the forgiveness of their sins, that they would be baptized and have their sins washed away.

God has instituted this office of the ministry for the means by which he brings salvation to people.

Now, the fourth paragraph in Article 5 of the Augsburg Confession begins with these words,

Condemned are the Anabaptists. And I'm going to stop right there. Condemned are the

Anabaptists. There's a reason why they're condemned in Article 5 of the Augsburg Confession, but I'm going to pause for a minute.

We'll do some textual work, and at the end of the sermon we'll explain why. So let's return to our epistle text, 1

Timothy 3. Today I'll be focusing in on the office of overseer, which is a pastor.

And here's what it says, starting at verse 1. The saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of pastor...

When you see that word, you can say pastor. You might say overseer in your

Bible. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer or pastor, he desires, and pay close attention to these words, he desires a noble task, a noble work.

You must beware of the man who seeks to be called pastor, wants the title, but doesn't want to do the work.

Pastors are servants. They are not rulers and reigners. The one who wants to be called pastor, but not lift his finger to actually do the task, is a self -centered man who does not understand what it is that the office of the overseer is designed for, and he will always work things in his benefit and always at the expense of others.

Keep that in mind. One of the church fathers, Caesarius of Arlis, here's how he describes this verse, and I think he's right.

He says, the office of a pastor is a good work. Dearest brethren, as the blessed apostle says, whoever wants to be an overseer aspires a noble task.

Now, when task is heard, labor is understood. Therefore, whoever desires the office of the overseer with this understanding, wants it without the arrogance of ambition.

To express this more clearly, if a man wants not so much to be in authority over the people of God as to help them, then he aspires to be an overseer in the true spirit.

The one who desires to be a pastor so that he can rule and reign and laud and over other people, well, avoid that guy like the plague.

If you ever get one of those here, get rid of him. If I ever start talking like this, get rid of me. It's that simple.

The one who desires to be a pastor desires a noble task. It's work.

And then we get these words. Therefore, an overseer, a pastor, must be above reproach.

Now, you've heard me say it many times. Everybody here is a sinner, including me.

So how does one go from being sinner to being above reproach? How does one do that? I mean,

I wear black down here at the bottom to visually remind you all that I'm a sinner.

So how do I go from being sinner to above reproach? Well, a little cross -reference work will help here.

Colossians chapter 1, verses 21 through 23 uses this exact phrase, above reproach.

Watch the context in which it is stated. Colossians 1, verse 21. You, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,

Christ has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.

If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven and of which

I, Paul, became a minister. Above reproach, first and foremost, means that your pastor is one who holds the faith.

He trusts the gospel. He has had his sins washed away. He is one who believes in Christ for the forgiveness of his sins and bears fruit in keeping with repentance.

Kind of two parts, if you would, here. You don't want a pastor who thinks that the gospel is somehow a license to sin.

Well, Christ has died for my sins. Jesus likes to forgive people. I'm a sinner.

This is a match made in heaven. Right? That's not how that works. Scripture over and again makes it clear.

The one who is truly in Christ daily walks in repentance. And that's the idea.

So above reproach, first and foremost, is he holds the faith, trusts that he's forgiven, bears fruit in keeping with repentance.

That's what this is all about. Now, above reproach does not mean that a man who is a pastor doesn't have critics.

And I would point this out, especially in light of today's culture. Right? Think of it this way.

Well, that pastor's not above reproach. Everybody in the community hates him because he keeps saying that and the other thing is a sin.

He's pro -life. He doesn't believe women should be pastors. He actually thinks that Jesus is the only way.

So he's not above reproach in the eyes of the community. Well, see, it doesn't say, well, a pastor must not have critics.

Okay? Another church father, Theodore of Mopswestia. Great name, by the way.

Yeah, that just rolls off the tongue. Mopswestia. Right? Here's what he said. Without reproach can scarcely mean without critics since Paul himself had such, but blameless as regard to his living.

And here it gets really, really controversial. Are you ready for the next part? Husband of one wife.

Are you saying that a pastor can only be a man? Mm -hmm. That's what this text is saying.

Women are not to hold the pastoral office. Husband of one wife. Now, let me tell you what this does not mean.

This does not mean that if you have a pastor and his wife dies, and he's widower, and then he finds some other girl that he likes, and she likes him, and they get married, that somehow he's now barred from being a pastor.

That's really not what's going on here because Scripture's very clear that you are released from the law of marriage upon the death of your spouse.

Or if a pastor has a wife who runs off with another man or leaves him or whatever, that that somehow, you know, bars him from being a pastor.

That's not what this is talking about here. Husband of one wife means that he's faithful to his wife, that he's not running around known to be some kind of sexually immoral womanizer or a thing like that, you know, trading in his wife's every few years like getting a new car like Donald Trump.

Yeah, I said that. Yep. That's what that is referring to.

He must be sober -minded, not prone to flights of fancy, self -controlled, respectable, hospitable, important one.

He also needs to be able to teach. It doesn't matter if the guy's a nice guy.

If he cannot rightly handle a biblical text and actually give you the true sense of it, rightly dividing law and gospel, all the other stuff doesn't matter.

You know, the pastoral office is a teaching office. He must be able to teach. He must not be a drunkard.

That means an alcoholic. Now, when I was preparing my sermon, one of the funniest quotes I've read in a while from the church fathers,

Jerome, talking about this, says to pastors, let your breath never smell of wine, lest the philosopher's words would be said of you.

Instead of offering me a kiss, you're giving me a taste of wine. I thought that was kind of fascinating. So it's good advice on the part of Jerome there.

He must not be violent, but gentle. Not be a striker is what it says there.

Not quarrelsome. Not a lover of money. Oh, man, I wish people would pay attention to this one.

Just a little side note here. Not a lover of money. You want a 100 % accurate test as to whether or not a person who claims to be a pastor is a lover of money?

It's real simple. This one works every single time. Anyone who is a pastor or a teacher who tells you that God wants to bless you financially, but his hands are tied.

He can't do that until you actually send them money called sowing a seed.

Once you sow a seed into their ministry, then God will bless you 100 -fold. As soon as somebody says that, you know with 100 % certainty that person you're listening to is an idolater and a lover of money and is not qualified to be a pastor.

Think about this. As soon as somebody starts talking like that, they're not qualified anymore.

They've been disqualified from being a pastor because they're a lover of money. If their home shows up on the internet and people are scandalized by it, like, have you seen this person's 10 ,000 square foot estate on 50 acres with a guard shack and a helicopter and an airport landing strip?

That guy's a lover of money. And then they'll argue and they'll sit there and say, well, really, how much is too much?

Private jet is too much. 10 ,000 square foot mansion is too much.

At some point it gets obscene because the world sees that and you know what they think of Christianity? Oh, all they want is your money.

We should look at this text and say, that person's not qualified to be a pastor. We need to figure out how to have charges brought to have him defrocked.

He's not qualified in the same way, in the same way if he was an alcoholic or had committed adultery.

We get rid of those guys with no problem. Why are we not getting rid of these money grubbers? They need to go away.

They're not qualified to be pastors. Another controversial statement.

He must manage his own household well with all dignity, keeping his children submissive.

For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?

This rules out the requirement that the pastor must be celibate and can't be married.

In fact, I would argue this text is saying that many pastors learn how to be good pastors by having to deal with the crazy little people.

We had three crazy little people show up at our house and we had to raise them. That's a good place to learn how to be a pastor.

If you can't do the crazy little people well, you're not going to be able to handle the crazy big people. I'm just saying.

Here's an important one also. He must not be a recent convert or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.

This doesn't really apply to the AALC, but I will say this. This problem is rampant in evangelicalism.

Many of the most popular mega -church pastors were made pastors very shortly after they became

Christians. That's a problem. To a man, I can name several of them, to a man, they all have major problems because the one who is a recent convert does become puffed up with conceit and he comes in thinking he knows better how to run the church than the way the church has been run for thousands of years.

It's a big problem. Now, he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace and into a snare of the devil.

Yeah, there's qualifications for a pastor. You don't sit there and say, you know what, we need a pastor.

Maybe what we need to do is set up a wheel and we'll put different names on the wheel and just spin it.

And whatever the name falls on, that guy gets to be our pastor. It doesn't work that way. This takes thought. This takes prayer.

This takes examination. This takes time. And this is all important. And the reason being is because this is the office by which

God's Word goes out to sustain you in your faith and to bring others to penitent faith in Christ.

As a good cross -reference to this, I'd like you to look at Acts 20 with me starting at verse 17.

Here the apostle Paul, he's on his way to Jerusalem and he's absolutely convinced that this is going to be the last time he sees the pastors from the city of Ephesus.

And so he calls all the pastors from the city of Ephesus to come and meet with him as he's journeying to Jerusalem and he has some parting words for them.

You have to think about the magnitude of what it is that he's saying. If you were ever bedside with somebody who's dying and their last words to you were this, that, or the other thing, you usually pay attention to those words.

Now Paul isn't dying at this point, but he's convinced they'll never see him again and so this is the thing he wants them to always remember.

Here's what it says starting at verse 17. Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, called the elders, that's the pastors of the church, to come to him, and when they came to him he said to them, you yourselves know how

I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia serving the Lord with humility and with tears and trials that happened to me through the plots of the

Jews, how I did not shrink back from declaring anything that was profitable. Little bit of a side note here.

You'll note then, the apostle didn't shrink back from teaching what is profitable and pastors are not allowed to do that either.

The pastor who sits there and sticks his finger into the wind, licks it and goes, and sticks it up in the wind, figures out which way the cultural winds are blowing and decides to go with that cultural winds.

Well, you know, there's a lot of people who think that abortion's okay, same sex marriage is okay, so we're not gonna actually say it's not, we just won't talk about it.

We'll just skip over those passages of scripture that discuss these things. That guy's changing the message and he's refusing to teach all that is profitable and in doing so he's actually shrinking back because who is the person he's really worried about when he starts shaving off parts of God's word?

Himself. I wanna make sure that I get invited to all the right Christmas parties, that the people in the community see me as, well, magnanimous, as great, as wonderful and they're not gonna do that if I start teaching everything that's in God's word.

We gotta be relevant, you know, because if we start saying everything that's in God's word and saying, well, this is what

God says, there might be people who are offended and then they won't come back and then

I won't get my annual bonus and my raise. They won't invite me to their Christmas parties and I'll be lonely and people will think

I'm just stupid. That is a selfish person and he's not fit for the office.

The Apostle Paul's life demonstrates how it is a pastor is to behave, not shrinking back from declaring anything that was profitable and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying to both

Jews and Greeks of, watch this, repentance towards God and of faith in our

Lord Jesus Christ, law and gospel. And now behold, I'm going to Jerusalem constrained by the

Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.

Apparently Paul didn't have his best life now. But I do not account my life of any value or as precious to myself.

If only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Important words there. Everybody who is in Christian ministry in one of these offices has received this ministry from Christ.

That's important. Now behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again.

Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all for I did not, here it is again, shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

Scripture warns all men who seek the pastoral office that those who hold it will be held to a stricter judgment than any other

Christians. Stricter. And notice what Paul says here. He says, I'm innocent of all of your blood because I did not shrink back from teaching the whole counsel of the word of God.

This gives you a hint as to the extra part of the judgment that pastors face.

Because God's gonna hold pastors accountable for the blood of those who they refuse to preach the truth to.

Think about that. So pay careful attention to yourselves, Paul says to these pastors, and to all of the flock,

Christ's sheep, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.

Who is it that makes men pastors? It is the

Holy Spirit. We must keep this in mind. There are many churches today who treat their pastors as if they're just mere employees.

They're around for a few years, and we fire him, and we get another one. There are many men who

I've received emails from over the years who are faithful pastors who preach God's word and proclaim

Christ, who have found themselves, well, out of a job because they were irrelevant, weren't really producing the goods, things like that.

And I would warn you all, resist that temptation because every man who is a pastor has been set up by Christ, and the

Holy Spirit has called him. Think long and hard before you ever decide to take an action to remove a man from ministry.

You need to have actual biblical cause because he's sent by Christ, sent by the

Holy Spirit. Then he says this, so pay careful attention to yourselves and all the flock in which the

Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God which he obtained by his own blood.

That's right, God bled on the cross. That's what that's saying. And the whole church was purchased with the precious blood of Christ.

And I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things.

Notice where these wolves are coming from. They're coming from men who are in the ranks of pastors.

These are men who arise from other pastors, this whole group, and now they're twisting

God's Word. They're teaching twisted things. They don't spare the flock. They're exploiting the flock.

They're not caring for the flock. They're fleecing it. They will speak twisted things, and they will draw away disciples after themselves.

And there's how you always can tell. The person who is not bound to what God's Word says, not bound to what the church has historically taught, but begins coming up with his own interpretations, his own ideas, and say, hey,

I've got an idea of what this text means. I know everybody else has always said it means this, but it really means this.

That guy's teaching heresy, and he's no longer making disciples of Jesus. He's making disciples of himself, and the person who is making disciples of himself is a wolf.

This is why historically all of the heretics have had their heresies named after them. The Arian heresy, named after Arius, because he was drawing away disciples after himself, not

Jesus. The Pelagian heresy, named after Pelagius, because he was drawing away disciples after himself, not making disciples of Christ.

What does Jesus say in the Great Commission? Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching all that I have commanded.

True pastors make disciples of Jesus, and only teach

Jesus' doctrines, which we find in the apostles, the prophets, and in Moses.

And does it rightly handle God's Word? The heretic, he's come up with something totally new.

And he scratches itching ears, and he takes people's eyes off of Christ, and puts them squarely on him.

This is a dangerous, dangerous man, and the result of which can be absolutely, eternally devastating.

So, you'll notice he says, be alert. Be alert. Pay careful attention to yourselves in the flock.

These men are going to rise up from your own ranks, and they have. Be alert, remembering that for three years

I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears. And so now I commend you to God and to the

Word of His grace. I commend you to God and the Scriptures. That's the Word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

I coveted no one's silver, or gold, or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities, and to those who were with me.

In all things I have shown that by working hard in this way we must help the weak, and remember the words of the

Lord Jesus, how He Himself said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.

And see, Paul stands in stark contrast then to today's megachurch pastors and today's

TBN televangelists who exploit the poorest of the poor by saying, oh, are you in poverty?

God wants you to be rich. Just send me money and He'll make you rich. Paul, he refused to be paid.

He was a bivocational apostle. Didn't take a paycheck so that the

Gospel can reach the weakest of the weak, the poorest of the poor. He is the opposite of today's celebrity pastors.

And I thank God for this text. So, when he had said these things, he knelt down and he prayed with them all.

He prayed with them all. So I come back then again to these words from our

Gospel text. And you can kind of see it now. You can see what's really going on here.

That God has truly set up the office of pastor for people to hear the

Gospel, to be given faith, to have their sins forgiven, to have their faith strengthened.

This office that Christ has given us is a gift. And here then again the words from our

Gospel text. The man who had no name, the rich man in the fires of Hades says,

I beg you, Father, send to my father's house I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.

Abraham said, they have Moses and the prophets. You see, God chooses to work by means.

He does not choose to work and bring people to penitent faith in Christ by sending apparitions and ghosts from the grave.

He's chosen to bring people to repentance through the preaching of Moses, the prophets, and the apostles.

And Abraham says, let them hear them. And he said, no. If someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.

He said to them, if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.

And so I said in the Augsburg Confession, in Article 5, Paragraph 4, it says, condemned are the

Anabaptists. And here's the reason why. They're condemned, along with others, who teach that the

Holy Spirit comes to us through our own preparations, through our own thoughts, through our own works, and that the

Holy Spirit comes to us without the external word of the gospel.

Abraham here teaches us, no, the Holy Spirit comes and brings people to repentance, not immediately, but immediately, through the means that He has established, and the means that He has established is the

Word of God. Moses, the prophets, the apostles. This is how men are brought to repentance.

This is what Christ has set up. And all of this is for you.

It is for you so that you can hear the good Word from Christ. That He was born of the

Virgin Mary. That He suffered under Pontius Pilate. That He was crucified, died, and was buried.

And that He was raised again on the third day. All of this for you and for your salvation.

And God, the Holy Spirit, then works through this preaching of His living and active

Word to convict you of your sins, but comfort you and assure you of the grace and mercy of Christ so that you might have confidence.

Confidence that you have a Heavenly Father who truly loves you. Who finds you at your worst, not your best, and bleeds and dies for you so that you might have life.

So that you do not suffer the fate of the nameless rich man who finds himself in Hades who never repented.

All of this comes through the preaching of His Word. And for the preaching of this Word, Christ has given us the gift of the office of the

Holy Ministry. And for this, we thank and praise Him. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

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