Stavanger Lectures: The Office of Pastor Lecture 2/2

Good evening, it is a pleasure to be able to speak here again tonight, and we don't care about small crowds, we don't care about that at all.

The Word of God does what it does, and it does it well. Last night I began to lecture on this topic, and we covered

Korah's rebellion. We talked a little bit about church history, and we talked about the fact that God, in His order, has established offices within His church.

And that Christ Jesus being King, He's the one who gets to decide. And He's not a king that is merely a figurehead,

He legitimately rules and reigns the nations. And as a result of it, His church is to follow

His commands, and the orders that He has given us. And I mentioned also that when we look at church history, there are some very fascinating things that show up in church history that are embarrassing for Rome, but I would also note are embarrassing also for those who are not keen on pastors.

Pastors serve an important role. But when we read in the Formula of Concord, and the

Formula of Concord, not Formula of Concord, the Book of Concord, in the Treatise on Power and Primacy of the

Pope, there's a section in there called the Testimony from History, and I think this is worth looking at here.

Here's what it says, the Council of Nicaea decided that the Bishop of Alexandria should administer the churches in the

East, and the Bishop of Rome should administer the suburban churches, or the metropolitan churches if you read the canons of the

Council of Nicaea, that this is those that were the

Roman provinces in the West. Originally, therefore, the authority of the Roman Bishop grew out of a decision of a

Council, and is of a human right. For if a Bishop of Rome has his superiority by divine right, it would not have been lawful for the

Council to withdraw any right from him and transfer it to the Bishop of Alexandria. In fact, all the Eastern Bishops should forever have sought ordination and confirmation from the

Roman Bishop. And again, the Council of Nicaea decided that Bishops should be elected by their own churches in the presence of one or more neighboring

Bishops. And this is an important feature for when we consider why and what is going on.

You can find this, by the way, in Canon 4 of the Canons of the Council of Nicaea of 325.

Not the older one in the 700s, but the first one in 325. The fact that the

Church elected Bishops, and then the Bishops, they would put Pastors in place, is a big deal because it shows something that we see in Scripture that a lot of people have not considered.

And here's the text I would like to look at as we kind of build out this portion of it. So Paul writes in 1

Corinthians 3, starting at verse 18, Let no one deceive himself.

If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool, that he may become wise.

For the wisdom of this world is folly with God, for it is written, He catches the wise in their craftiness.

And again, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile. So let no one boast in men.

And what was happening in Corinth is some people were saying, I follow Paul, and others were saying, no, no, no,

I follow Apollos, or I follow Cephas. And today they might say,

I follow Mosphe, or I follow Rosebro. Here's what

Paul says. He says, so let no one boast in men, for all things are yours.

And this is where we have to understand something about the Pastoral Office and why elected officers were an important thing.

Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or the present or the future, all are yours.

And Paul here is getting at something here. This is following from something that Christ taught very clearly in the

Gospels, and that is that those who serve in Christ's Church do not rule and reign like emperors and princes and people who expect to be weighted on hand and foot.

It is absolutely out of the question that somebody in Christ's Church would require

Christians to kiss their ring and things like this, right? And so here Paul says it, and this is a very often missed text,

Apollos, Paul, and Cephas belong to the congregation. And he didn't say it once.

He said it twice. All things are yours. All are yours, and you are

Christ, and Christ is God. And so coming back then to the priesthood of all believers, we are truly all priests in Christ with that freedom and that necessary compulsion to share the

Gospel, the good news of Christ with our neighbors, and to serve our neighbors in our good works.

That's true. And pastors, and there are some scholars who argue that the

Church at Corinth may have had Apollos as one of their early pastors. So whether it's apostles or pastors, they all belong to the congregation.

They belong to the body of Christ, not the other way around. And then this flows perfectly then from something that Christ taught us, okay?

And here's what it says. So I'm going to have to put this in context because I think this text is so funny, all right?

The mother of the sons of Zebedee, this is Matthew 20. Can you imagine how desperate you must be to have your mother, to ask your mother to ask

Jesus for important positions in Jesus' kingdom? This is silly, right?

So the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to Jesus with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked him for something.

And he said to her, what do you want? And she said, say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand, and one at your left, in your kingdom.

Thanks, Mom, right? Jesus answered, you don't know what you are asking.

Now this is absolutely true, and I want you to consider the fulfillment of this. Christ is coronated as the king of Israel by the

Roman government, but with a crown of thorns. Jesus' coronation day, his throne is not a throne, it's the cross.

And those who were on his right and on his left were the two thieves. They had the places of honor because Christ was bleeding and dying for their sins and mine, right?

One believed and the other didn't. So they clearly didn't know what they were asking because they were looking at kingdoms the way we oftentimes look at kingdoms, power and authority to squash and to command and all this kind of stuff.

And people telling me, yes, your honor, no, your honor, yes, sir, no, sir. This is not what this is about.

So Jesus asked the question, are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink? And they said to him, we are able.

He said to them, well, you will drink my cup, talking about his suffering, but to sit at my right hand and my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those whom it has been prepared by my father.

And when the 10 heard this, they were indignant, going, man, why didn't we ask our moms to talk to Jesus, right?

When they heard this, they were indignant at the two brothers, but Jesus called them to him and he said, you know that the rulers of the

Gentiles lorded over them and their great ones exercise authority over them.

It shall not be so among you, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant.

And whoever would be first among you must be your slave. Even as the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

So you'll note, this explains how the authority works in the kingdom of Christ.

It is not at all like the authority of the world's kingdoms. Jesus is king of kings and lord of lords, and yet he humbled himself, taking on the form of a servant, becoming obedient to death, even death upon a cross.

Therefore, God exalts him, gives him the name that is above every name. And now we, as Christians, we share his name.

He puts his name on us in the waters of baptism. You are baptized into the name of the Father, the

Son, and the Holy Spirit. He then says that in his church, apostles are not at the top.

They are the servants, they are the slaves, and if you want to make the case, you can argue, on the night that he was betrayed,

Jesus sets that wonderful example of washing the feet of his disciples, which tells us then about the quality of his leadership and what he's looking for.

I have a master's degree in business administration. That's one of my graduate degrees.

And I remember learning in several courses that every organization has what they call a corporate culture.

Some corporations, they value innovation, and they value making things better.

People who have ideas on how to make things better, they are rewarded for those ideas.

And you think maybe a company like Apple Computer, right? They're constantly innovating, they're looking for ways to make things better.

And so that's part of their culture, that's a value to them. Other corporations, they have cultures that do not want change.

Don't you come in here with your ideas, you keep your mouth shut, you keep your eyes down, don't look up, don't ask questions, and we don't want to hear from you.

You just do your job. And that's a type of culture within corporations as well.

But you'll note that within the kingdom of Christ, the culture begins with the ones who are put into positions of authority.

The culture is they're not there to rule and reign, they're there to serve. God gives gifts to men and to the church for the purpose of serving others.

In fact, when you consider that the Charismatic and Pentecostal churches, they talk all the talk about the gifts of the

Spirit, but they ignore the fact that Paul specifically states that God gives these gifts for the building up of the church.

Men whom God has given the gift to teach, they are not serving themselves with their teaching gift, they are serving the body of Christ.

Men who are able to administer and be good at keeping track of how things need to operate and timetables and budgets and stuff like that, that's a dark art.

But we value them because they're necessary for the body to function. That's a gift given by God.

And so the idea then here, as God has given each of us gifts, we note then that first and foremost, he's given us the gift of each other.

Because I can't be a Christian without you. And you can't be a

Christian without me. We have been given to each other. And so the offices that Christ has established are not so that people can sit there and go,

I am the Reverend Chris Rose, bro, and I expect you to acknowledge how smart and intelligent and powerful and beautiful I am, right?

Get that guy out of here. That's Satan talking. That's not Christ.

And then you'll note then that this carries over into how we are to consider each other.

And so what Christ says here, that you will not lord over other people,

Paul reiterates in Philippians 2, do nothing, nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others as more significant than yourselves.

Do you think this applies to pastors also? Of course it does.

This is a blanket statement for all Christians that we collectively think of each other.

Bishop Mosby, more important than me. My wife, more important than me. You, Inga, more important than me.

And then you also then think the same about everybody else in the body of Christ.

It's not about getting to the top. There is no freedom at the top, the way the world thinks.

I want you to think about this. The way the world operates, the one who gets to be the boss, he gets to go to the top.

He gets to ride in the private jet, he gets to go to the nice restaurants, he's able to take a vacation in the

Mediterranean with his family and his mistress is somewhere off to the side, right? And how long does he get to be at the top?

Not very long. And not only that, he has to constantly be on his guard, looking to make sure that there's no one threatening to remove him from the top.

And so he, once he gets there, he's stuck, right? And he's got to protect it.

There is no freedom at the top. Go to the bottom. There is perfect freedom at the bottom.

And here's the best part, if you take this mentality that Paul is telling us through the power of the

Holy Spirit to embrace, that's where the real freedom is. I am free to serve anyone as long as they're willing to let me serve them.

And if you don't want me to serve you, that's okay. I have others that God will let me serve.

And so the idea here is that God's economy, his corporate culture within the church is not about getting to the top and being recognized.

It's about getting to the bottom and experiencing the freedom that comes from lovingly serving your neighbor for your neighbor's sake.

Not for paragraphs in the newspaper, headlines, or things like this, but instead it's all about getting to the bottom.

This then tempers then how we understand the office of the pastor. Because you'll note that sometimes people react against the pastoral office because men who have been in that office have abused that power.

They have used that position to build their own kingdom rather than the kingdom of Christ.

And here's the problem, is that when somebody abuses the pastoral office, they've misused it and as a result of that have exalted themselves and made others feel low, the temptation is to say, we're just going to get rid of the pastoral office and that'll solve the problem.

Well, if the one is an error, then the opposite error is also still an error.

And as Christians, we're not free to make opposite errors. We have to resolve problems the way the scriptures tell us to resolve them.

So coming back to this, you can see then where Paul says, all things are yours. You Christians, every

Christian, all things are yours. Paul is yours. Apollos is yours. Cephas is yours.

Bishop Masvi is yours. Pastor Roseborough is yours, right? And you'll note that this is our inheritance that we have in Christ.

So that then explains how we are to serve. And I would note then another passage that relates to the pastoral office, but it's talking about the different offices or the different people that God has sent.

Watch how it describes them in Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4, talking about Christ and saying he ascended, what does it mean that he has also descended into the lower regions of the earth?

This is one of those obscure texts that we understand that Christ descended into hell and on the third day rose from the grave.

But note then that when he ascends to heaven, Christ gives gifts to the church.

He who descended is the one who also ascended far above the heavens so that he might fill all things and he gave.

He gave the apostles. He gave the prophets. He gave the evangelists.

He gave the shepherds and the teachers. Christ is the one who gives these men.

And so we recognize that the apostles and prophets, we think of Paul. We think of Peter.

We think of the authors of the New Testament. And the prophets, Christ gave us the Old Testament prophets as well.

And in the church, in the early days before the Bible was finished, there were actually New Testament prophets who were given the ability to preach the gospel of Christ without a biblical text to work from because the

New Testament hadn't been completed, right? So he gave all these things and then watch why. To equip the saints.

To equip the saints for what? The work of ministry. And here's where I'm going to take a quibble with the

ESV. So when we look at the Greek word that is translated in the

ESV as ministry, the word is diakonia. It's rendering service.

It's a performance of a service. And so the idea then is that God has given,

Christ has given to his church shepherds and teachers and their job is to equip the body of Christ for their works of service, which would be the good works that you are to perform for your neighbor.

The pastor is to exhort you to be good husbands and good wives and obedient children and obedient and hardworking employees and things like this and good citizens.

And so you'll note then that these offices exist to serve the body, not the other way around.

And that's what is so wrong about so many places that call themselves churches is that you think of like, you know, men like Carl Lentz and Bill Johnson and Brian Houston and others, right?

Their churches treat them as if somehow that they are royalty or things like this. That's all backwards, right?

So God has given gifts of evangelists and shepherds and teachers and apostles and prophets to equip the body of Christ for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ.

That's the purpose of them. And so you'll note then that then when we talk about overseers, as the

New Testament describes them, the presbyteroi, that they have to be qualified then.

They have a very specific task and it's an important one that Christ wants to have it done correctly.

And we also note then that God the Holy Spirit is intimately involved in calling men into these offices.

Let me explain. In Acts chapter 20, in Paul's farewell address to the elders of the congregations in the city of Ephesus, Paul says this,

Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all of the flock in which the

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

This is one of my favorite sentences in all of Scripture because it teaches so much.

I would, I always like to point out to my catechumens, when did God bleed? Well, on the cross, right?

But note then, the overseers themselves, they were called into that ministry by the

Holy Spirit. This is one of the reasons why confessional Lutherans are very picky and they say that no one should publicly teach in the church without a rite vocatus, without a rightly ordered call, right?

So and the Holy Spirit then is the one who calls men into the pastoral ministry. And so he's the one, pay attention to yourselves, to all the flock in which the

Holy Spirit has made you overseers, and here we see episkopos here, the bishops, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

God is the one who calls people into ministry and those who hold these offices are to care for his church.

So the idea then is that yes, we are all priests, but only some are called to be these overseers, to be these caretakers, and God requires that caretakers in his church be qualified.

Today I visited the emergency room here in Stavanger. I was suffering from diverticulitis,

I was in a lot of pain, and I was very thankful that the doctor who cared for me, he had been to medical school, and that the nurses had also gone to nursing school, and that they were properly licensed to be able to care for me.

If I had gone to the emergency room and saw that they had received their medical degree from a back alley, maybe from a diploma mill off of the internet,

I wouldn't have let them care for me, right? If we don't let people care for us in our physical bodies who are not qualified, why on earth would we allow somebody to care for us spiritually if they're not qualified?

I would point this out. The worst thing that can happen to a human being by a physician who is not qualified to be a physician, the worst thing that can happen to them is that person dies.

Which, we all know as Christians, that's not the worst thing that can happen to a person. But when it comes to spiritual care, the worst thing that can happen when somebody is practicing to be an overseer without properly being trained in it, the worst thing that can happen is that that person sends all of the people who are listening to them to hell.

And that's eternal death. So in that context, then, we must consider what the

Scriptures say regarding who is qualified and who is not qualified to be in the pastoral office.

So 1 Timothy 3 says this, Paul writing in the Pastoral Epistle. The saying is trustworthy.

If anyone aspires to the office of the overseer, he desires a noble task.

And I would note that here we've got an interesting word, episkopos. And when you look this up in your

Greek lexicon, you look this up, it is legitimately talking about a position that has to be filled, an office.

So that being the case, the office of the overseer, who is the one who created this office?

God did. Okay? So anyone who aspires to the office of the overseer, he desires a noble task, therefore, an overseer must be above reproach.

So here are the rules, okay? For somebody to be in the care, to care for human souls under Christ, with his gifts, first and foremost, he must be above reproach.

And this is a little bit more than the forgiveness of our sins. The idea then is that if somebody were to say, you know,

I really want to be a pastor, but I spent the first 20 years of my life as a bank robber, and there are people who might be so offended by that person being in the pastoral office, that would be a problem.

Or somebody who, as a Christian, divorced their spouse and didn't have just reasons for doing that.

There would be people who would say, why is that person a pastor? They're not above reproach.

So the idea here is that there are moral standards, and being above reproach, people saying, yeah, there's nothing that I see in his life that would disqualify him or that's morally offensive.

And then watch how the words work here. The husband of one wife, or as the

Greek says, a one -woman man, right? The idea then that pastors who go about and have multiple women in affairs and things like that, they're disqualified.

But note then, this is saying that an overseer has to be a man, absolutely has to be a man.

Because no woman can be the husband of a woman. So you'll note that today's worldly orthodoxy that talks about the fact that we can choose our genders, that's nonsense.

God chooses our gender. And not only that, you'll note that in the world today, people despise and speak negatively against what?

Patriarchy. Down with the patriarchy. Stop mansplaining to me what's going on here.

This is how they talk in the U .S., right? And I always like to point out to those feminists who are offended by patriarchy, you are aware that Jesus is

King of Kings and Lord of Lords, that the entire universe is run by a patriarchy. Right?

Father, Son, Holy Spirit, they all use masculine pronouns, every one of them. And Jesus, not only that, you can sort this one out,

King of Kings and Lord of Lords as he is, he's going to sit on the throne of David, his father, forever. And oh, he was circumcised on the eighth day after he was born.

So we know that he is truly male. They don't like these answers, right?

So you'll know, in order to be an overseer in Christ's church, men are the ones who are to do it.

Husband of one wife, sober -minded, self -controlled, somebody who is out of control, not qualified, respectable, hospitable, able to teach.

Now here's where I would point something out. Sometimes, ordaining organizations permit men to be pastors who do not have the ability to teach.

This is not right. If the person has no ability to teach, they can't be expected to teach the body of Christ.

So if they have no aptitude here, they're disqualified. Not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.

Oh, how many men would be disqualified if we just paid attention to that, right? He must manage his own household well, with all dignity, keeping his children submissive, for someone does not know how to manage his own household.

How? How will he care for God's church? So you'll note then, that when you consider the qualifications for this office, now we're starting to see the number of people who could potentially fill it come down to a short list.

And that's necessarily so. And this is not in contradiction to the priesthood of all believers.

It's because these men are called to serve the priesthood of all believers. And when you have a man who is immoral, who is out of control, who loves money, he brings reproach to the name of Christ, and he misleads and deceives the people he's called to care for and to serve, and as a result of it, he brings reproach upon them, right?

But this is not what God wills. So, and then note, he must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.

I've attended churches where if somebody became a Christian, within just a few short weeks and months, they might be asked to give a little sermon, right?

They have no idea what they're doing. And this text says, no, a pastor cannot be a recent convert so that he is not tempted with deceit.

And moreover, here's where it gets interesting, he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace and into a snare of the devil.

You don't want your pastor to be morally repugnant to unbelievers. Now, granted, in our days and in times of Christian persecution, the world is going to hate our pastors, all of them, right?

But we don't want them to hate our pastors with reason, with a cause. Well, that guy was, he didn't pay his taxes, he always is speeding, he's terrible, his children are hooligans and things like this, and if the world sees that, they're going to go, why, why, why?

It's weird that the world knows. If your pastor's not living the way he's supposed to, they're aware of it.

And if the world is complaining about your pastor, you've got a problem, right? But if they're saying,

I don't like that guy because he believes the Bible, ah, you've got a good pastor, right?

So you get the idea here. Now here's where, and I'm going to back up into this text, actually, this one here.

The Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy says something very fascinating, remind them of these things and charge them before God not to quarrel about words which do no good but only ruins the hearers.

Here Paul is talking to young Pastor Timothy, and in his final letter, before he's going to have his head taken off of his shoulder by a

Roman centurion, he's admonishing young Pastor Timothy about how to conduct his pastoral office.

He says, so do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

So one of the main qualifications then for a pastor is that he has to be trained in sound doctrine, and he needs to know how to rightly divide or rightly handle the word of truth.

And I would note then that, you know, the way the Greek words, the sentence here kind of works out, and this is why the

King James Version says that he needs to be able to rightly divide the word of truth. It's the rightly cut it, that's kind of the idea here, is that God's word is not as simple to teach as many people think.

So many people say, well, I have the Holy Spirit, I have my Bible, I don't need anything else.

Well, if you didn't need anything else, then why did the Apostle Paul say to present yourself as one approved, a worker who need not be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth?

So the idea then here is that this requires study. And I would note, many examples are in the

Bible of people who have erred greatly because they don't know how to rightly handle

God's word. Let me give you an example. At Kongsvinger, we follow the one -year lectionary.

And the gospel text for last week was so fascinating, and I think helpful in this regard.

And Jesus, this is during Holy Week, he's already had his triumphal entry into Jerusalem and he's getting ready to go to the cross.

And so the Sadducees and the publicans, everyone's trying to make a run at Jesus to try to trip him up with his words.

And so Jesus silenced them all, and the Sadducees were the group that went just before the

Pharisees decided to send in their champion. And what's fascinating here is that when the

Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together and one of them, a lawyer. Now namikos here in the

Greek, when we think of attorneys, lawyers, we think of people who practice law in the courts.

But namikos here can actually mean somebody who studies the law of God, the commandments.

And so this is his focus. And as Lutherans, we sit there and go, well if your focus is only going to be on the law, you're missing a lot in the scriptures.

And so here we have an expert in the law, and he was sent to question Jesus in order to test him, which means he's an expert in the law.

Teacher, which is the great commandment of the law? And he's expecting that this question is going to trip

Jesus up, as if somehow Jesus was some kind of woke, rainbow, granola person or something like that.

And so Jesus said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.

This is the great and first commandment, and a second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. And in one of the cross -references in the gospel, it gives us the response of this expert in the law.

He was blown away by Jesus' answer, and he said, you are right, you are right.

And then Jesus said to the fellow, because he gave him a wise answer, Jesus said to him, you're not far from the kingdom of God.

That's what Jesus ended up saying to this guy. And those are interesting words, because by Jesus saying you're not far from the kingdom of God, he's saying you're not in it.

And the law can't save you. And see, that's the thing. If somebody's not capable of rightly handling, rightly dividing the word of truth, they will err in a great way by focusing only on the law.

Don't drink, don't smoke, don't chew, don't talk back to your parents, don't act like you're better than anybody else.

And they will burden you with a list of things over and over again, make sure you do this and be intentional about that, and all that kind of stuff.

That goes from piety into pietism. And pietism is a great error.

It is a great error because it doesn't balance God's law with the gospel.

The law cannot save you. You cannot love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength because your sinful nature is incapable of it.

And so, as Christians then, when we hear the law, we should be saying, yes, but I don't do that.

I can't even point to a single time in my life where I can say, yep, for five minutes back in 1987,

I loved God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. You see, God's law condemns us here.

It condemns us all because who of us can say I've loved God with all my heart, all my soul, all my strength?

Is it any wonder that Jesus said to this fellow, you're not far from the kingdom of God, but the law can't take you the whole way.

The law only shows you your need for somebody else. And so Jesus then flips the script.

And in my sermon on this text, I compared people who are experts in the law to people who go to the gym and they only work out the upper part of their body.

They never work out their legs. And if you've ever seen guys that do this, they look really weird, okay?

From here up, they look like Arnold Schwarzenegger, right? From here down, they look like Pee Wee Herman, you know?

It's just bizarre. This is a freak of nature. But the one who is called to be a pastor is called to rightly handle and divide the entire word of God.

So Christ then asked the question while the Pharisees were gathered together. He asked them this question. So what do you think about the

Christ? What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he, right? Jesus was getting at a point here, pointing out that their understanding of the scripture was woefully insufficient because they were experts on only one portion of it.

Whose son is he? Well, they said to him, oh, that's easy, son of David. Then he ramps it up.

How is it then that David in the spirit calls him Lord, saying, the Lord said to my

Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies under your feet and make your enemies your footstool,

I put them under your feet. If David then calls him Lord, how is he also his son? And you would think that if they were experts in the scripture, they would have already begun to work out the answers to these questions that Jesus had posed to them long before Jesus ever posed them.

Because Jesus here is quoting from Psalm 110. Have you ever seen what the author of Proverbs writes for us?

If we go to Proverbs chapter 30, check this out. This is an amazing section of scripture.

And here's what it says. Who has ascended to heaven and come down? This is

Proverbs 30, verse 4. Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment?

Who has established all the ends of the earth? And the answer to these questions is, well, God has.

But look at the last question. And what is his name? And what is his son's name?

Surely you know. In being an expert on the law, they had missed the

Son of God. It's right there in the Old Testament. Unmistakable.

Surely you know the name of his son. And if you talk to Orthodox Jews today, they have absolute heresy to say that God has a son.

But yet, Proverbs 30 says that he does. And so the point that Jesus is getting at in this gospel text is that by focusing in on the law and missing

Christ, you're not in the kingdom of God, you're still outside of it.

And if you're going to want to aspire to be a pastor or preacher or priest in God's, in Christ's church, you need to be skilled in its entirety.

You must be able to measure out law and gospel, to preach the law lawfully, to preach the gospel, to comfort sinners.

And I would note, with almost no exceptions, every single person

I've ever reviewed a sermon of who was not qualified to be a pastor, but they were still preaching anyway, you know what they focus on?

The law. And not just any law. Oftentimes, it's made up things. Law that isn't even law.

They'll say, you know, it is wrong for you to dance, drink, smoke, or chew. And so because of this,

I, for a long time, believe that Norwegians didn't dance. At least the immigrant ones in Minnesota, if you talk about dancing with them, we don't dance.

It's crazy, right? Well, why don't you dance? Because dancing leads to sins and things like this.

Well, David danced before the Lord. Well, what's your problem here, right?

Or they'll say, well, you can't drink and be a Christian. Where'd you get that from? Jesus made, he used wine when he made the

Lord's Supper. He took wine and said, this is my blood shed for you, for the forgiveness of your sins.

And Jesus, his first miracle was at a wedding feast. And at that wedding feast, what did he do?

He took ordinary washing water in seven basins, seven jars.

I wonder what that's referring to. Turned it into the best wine ever, right?

And so you'll note then that those who are not skilled in the scriptures have a tendency to make things up.

And they think that Christianity is all about, do not dance, do not drink, do not chew.

But the scriptures disagree with their assessment. Let me show you. In the book of Colossians, wonderful section in Colossians, Paul says this, and I always like to read the long version of this because it gives me an opportunity to preach the gospel.

Paul says, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit. How many people who have been pastors and teachers have shipwrecked their faith in the faith of others by mixing philosophy with the

Bible? You can't mix the two. They don't go together. So see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit.

According to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world.

And I'll explain what this is in a second with the text. Not according to Christ. For in Christ, the whole fullness of the deity dwells bodily.

And y 'all have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority.

In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.

And here, Paul is taking baptism and saying this is the

Christian circumcision. And that Christ is the one who takes every person who comes to him in the waters of baptism.

Hang on. We are back in business. And the point that I was making then is this.

Is that when we come to the waters of baptism, Christ is active.

He circumcises our hearts. You know, which is what exactly God said. You circumcise you hearts, you

Jews and you people of Israel because they're hard. And Christ does that for us in the waters of baptism.

And then in the waters of baptism, we've been buried with Christ. In which we were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead.

Note how Paul throughout his epistles constantly, up front, center, major points at the very beginning, always about Christ and what he has done for us.

Assuring Christians of their forgiveness. Reminding them that they've been united with Jesus. That God himself has circumcised their hearts and raised them from the dead in Christ and forgiven them of all of their trespasses.

You can't even begin to talk about good works as a Christian apart from the gospel.

The two must always go together. And so you who were dead in your trespasses, in the uncircumcision of your flesh,

God has made you alive together with him. And boy, this is a big

Greek word here. Made you alive together with is the Greek word.

I can't even pronounce it right. It's like one of these German words where you take a whole bunch of things and stick it together and get this wrong thing.

But God here is the subject. He's made you alive together with Christ and forgiven us, not some, but all of our trespasses.

And how did he do it? Wonderfully. By cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

When we read about the judgment day, it's very easy to have anxiety and sit there and go, it says that books are opened.

And I know what's in my book. And y 'all know what's in your books, right? But here's the thing.

When the books are open for Christians, the section called the record of debt, has been taken out.

He cancelled the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. And this Christ has set aside and he's nailed it to the cross.

And so you'll note beautiful stuff here. He disarmed the rulers and authorities. He put them to open shame, triumphing over them in him.

But then watch what comes next. Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in question of food or drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a

Shabbat, a Sabbath, right? You don't have, you can eat bacon now.

These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. And then let no one disqualify you.

And note, these are people that they would be listening to. Let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism and the worship of angels.

Asceticism being this idea that you treat your body harshly, right? Insisting on asceticism, the worship of angels and going on in detail about visions and suddenlies and breakthroughs and things like this, right?

Puffed up without reason by a sensuous mind and not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with a growth that is from God.

And note then that the false teacher doesn't hold fast to Christ.

And the one thing I can say is true about all of these false teachers is that their sermons are

Christless. They are crossless. And if your pastor is not rightly bringing both law and gospel, then he's not bringing you

Christ. That's what's missing. And so he says here that they don't hold fast to the head.

So then he goes on to say, if with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why as if you still are alive in the world do you submit to regulations?

And watch what Paul says. Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. How many sermons have you heard about this, right?

Do not handle. It's wrong for you to eat this thing. It's wrong for you to drink that thing.

It's wrong for you to smoke this thing. And it's all about the regulations, right? He says these are referring to things that all perish as they are used.

And these are according to human precepts. But true pastors in Christ's church are not permitted to preach human precepts.

They are forbidden by what Christ commanded. Let me explain what I mean by that. In the section of scripture we call the

Great Commission. Christ gives the commission to the church. He says all authority in heaven on earth has been given to me.

This is Matthew 28. Go therefore, go is not the imperative.

It's as you are going. This is a participle. So as you are going, make disciples of all nations.

There's your imperative. How? Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

That's how this is done. By teaching all that Christ has commanded. Whose church is it?

Jesus's church. What are pastors authorized to teach? What Christ has commanded?

Nothing more. Nothing less. I am not permitted as a pastor, as a priest, to teach my opinions or human precepts or human philosophy.

I have been instructed by Christ that I am to teach all that he has commanded. And the all there is important,

Panta, because that's going to include the Old Testament and the New Testament because Jesus is the same

God of both sides of the Bible. Which means I'm going to have to really pay attention to the whole thing.

So coming back then, okay? Why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations?

Do not handle. Do not taste. Do not touch. Referring to things that all perish as they are used according to human precepts and teachings.

These indeed have an appearance of wisdom in promoting self -made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

I don't think it is an accident that many churches, that it's all about these rules, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, that what ends up happening is that when you scratch the surface of the people's lives there, they're all hypocrites.

Because the law doesn't give you the power to obey it. And I would note

Christianity is not about human wisdom and human precepts. And human teaching.

It's about Christ and His Word. Let me give you another example here.

In the Gospel of Mark chapter 7, we have Jesus having a confrontation with the

Pharisees. What had happened is the Pharisees came to see Jesus to check out his ministry.

Is this guy on the level or not, right? Now if you know anything about the Pharisees, there were no

Pharisees in the Old Testament. Not a single one is mentioned. They came up during the intertestamental period, after Malachi, during the 400 years with the

Maccabean Wars and all the stuff that's in the Apocrypha. It was during that time that the

Pharisees came about. And they didn't exist prior to that. And they had a narrative, and the narrative went like this.

When Moses ascended Mount Sinai, God gave Moses two

Torahs. The first Torah is written, the second Torah is oral.

And the oral Torah, we are the guardians of it. We are the ones who decide what it means and what its rules are.

And the reason why God gave two Torahs, the oral Torahs, was so that no Gentile could ever hear the whole truth and be saved.

It was to condemn all the nations of the earth except for those who are Israelite.

That was their narrative. And so, does Jesus buy into this narrative of theirs?

Not at all. Here's what it says. The Pharisees gathered to Jesus with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem.

So they came from headquarters. They saw that some of the disciples, they ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.

For the Pharisees and the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders.

The tradition of the elders is the oral Torah. So if you were to look in the Bible, right, pull out your

Bible, show me the passage that commands you to wash your hands when you've gone to the grocery store, when you come back into your house.

There is no text that says that. But when you read the Talmuds, which is then the written version of the tradition of the elders, you find that command.

And so what would happen is that the Pharisees, when they would come home after being among the unwashed masses, they would have to clean themselves, not by taking a bath, but by a ceremonial washing.

And so they would have a washing basin and a pitcher. And there was a little ritual that they had to do.

So they would take their left hand, palm down, and they would pour water on it. They would switch hands and take and then pour water on the back of the right hand.

Then they would switch again and open up their left hand and pour water on their left hand, palm up, and then switch again, pour water on the palm of their hand, the right hand.

And then they would kind of do this and they would say, Thank you, Lord, God, maker of heaven and earth, that you've given us the command to wash our hands.

And you know what Jesus said to his disciples? No, you don't do that.

But it seems so pious. Why would you have a problem, Jesus, with the disciples washing their hands?

Right? This is part of our culture. This is what we do. Well, Jesus says this, all right?

So the text says, they complained and they said that the disciples were eating with hands that were defiled.

And the Pharisees and the Jews, they don't eat unless they wash their hands, holding to the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the marketplace, they don't eat unless they wash.

And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.

And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, Why? Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders?

Now, this is an important word here, walk, peripateo in the Greek. It refers to a Hebraism that you see throughout the

Old Testament, halakh, which means to how you conduct your life. It's not merely like I walked from here to there.

This is how you conduct your entire life. Why are your disciples not conducting their lives according to what?

The tradition of the elders. Because the Pharisees believed that their rules rose to the same level as the written

Torah of Moses. And so they were offended that Jesus was not making his disciples follow their rules.

And so your disciples, they eat with disciples' hands. And here's what Jesus does. He says, Well, did Isaiah prophesy of you, you hypocrites, as it is written?

This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

And this should give everybody pause here, because within the Christian church, there are many teachers who teach nothing but the commandments of men.

They spend very little time, if any, in the scriptures. Yet they are called pastors.

Yet they have a big following on the internet and other things. But you'll note, we are not permitted to do this.

This then gets to where Paul gives us the qualifications for elders in the epistle of Titus, as well as the responsibilities.

So you'll note that there's parallel then in Titus' list that goes with what we read in 2

Timothy. And here's what it says. This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained in order and appoint elders in every town, as I have directed you.

So here, again, we've got this idea that Titus has been left behind, and he's acting as a bishop here.

He's going to appoint different men to take the role of pastors in the different congregations throughout

Crete. And then Paul reminds them. Here's the qualifications. He must be above reproach, husband of one wife.

That means he's a male. His children are believers, not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.

For an overseer is God's steward. And there it is again. As what? God's steward.

Well, if I'm a steward, then nothing I'm stewarding belongs to me. That's the point.

As God's steward, he must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick -tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain.

He must be hospitable, a lover of good, self -controlled, upright, wholly undisciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word.

And here's the standard. As taught. Now, that means that Christianity was taught correctly by the apostles.

And as they have taught it, and as they have written these things to be understood, that's the standard.

Coming up with newfangled interpretations that nobody in church history has ever believed is not permitted.

The standard is that you not only have to hold to the word, but you need to understand how it has been taught by the apostles.

So that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and to rebuke those who contradict it.

Those of you who have jobs out in the workforce, do they not give you reviews of how you're doing at your job?

You know, in the United States, when you're doing a job, they'll sit you down once a year and say, we're going to give you your annual review.

And your annual review will determine whether or not you will get a raise or they will demote you or things like this, right?

And so they sit down, they'll say, well, Chris, you're a good team player, but there's some things we want you to improve.

You'll note that if you were to take this list, there are things that are in it that congregations must be evaluating the pastor on.

And some of the things the pastor is required to do because he is serving the priesthood of all believers is that he must do some things that culturally may be negative.

I would note guys who rebuke those who teach false doctrine, like myself and others, we're not well looked upon by people in the church.

They'll say, you're just too negative. You are just too critical. You're too polemical. Do you ever smile?

Why do you always have to condemn people? Don't you have anything positive to say? This is how they talk, right? Okay, so you'll note then that a pastor must be able to, you know, hold firm to the trustworthy word as it was taught.

He has to be able to give instruction in sound doctrine, not false doctrine. And he is required by Christ to rebuke those who contradict sound doctrine.

Well, that could cause a fight. That could get somebody upset. Somebody might end up in prison, right?

And here's the reason why. He says, They are insubordinate.

They reject authority. And worse, they are empty talkers.

When you watch my YouTube channel, I give examples of this all the time. People who have a huge following around the world, and when you listen to their message, they say nothing.

Completely empty words. And they are deceivers. And in Paul's time, he says, especially those of the circumcision party, this would be the, again,

I like to say to my congregation, that's not a party you want to go to. Okay.

Not very comfortable party. But this is referring to the Judaizers. And then watch this.

What does Christ will regarding the false teacher? They must be silenced.

Why do you rebuke false teachers? Because Christ says in his word, they must be silenced.

Well, Christ didn't say that. Paul did. Paul's an apostle of Jesus Christ. He speaks with Christ's authority.

And as an apostle of Jesus Christ, then I have no reason to question what he said here.

This is the will of Jesus, that those who teach false doctrine must be silenced. And then note the reason why.

Because they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.

False teachers exploit people. They manipulate them.

They take their money. They shipwreck their faith. And at the end of the day, people who listen to false teachers who are not qualified to be preaching in Christ's church, what do they have at the end of that?

Despair. And so you'll note

Paul's admonition stands. They are teaching shameful gain things they ought not to teach.

And then Paul does something that's politically incorrect. And he says that the false teachers, one of the

Cretans, a prophet of their own has said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons.

Well, that's not a very kind thing to say about Cretans. But here's what he said. This testimony is true.

Sounds like the Swedes. Therefore, rebuke them sharply so that they may be sound in the faith.

You see, the point of the rebuke is not the rebuke. The point of the rebuke is service. So that somebody might be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth.

You see, the job of a pastor is always about the service. You serve people by helping to evaporate the false doctrine that is fogging their minds to keep them from seeing

Christ. And is it any wonder then that Paul in 2 Timothy, 2

Timothy chapter three says, understand this, that in the last days, and we've been in the last days since Jesus ascended, so this is relevant now, there will come times of difficulty.

But what he's describing here is the condition of the visible church near the time of Christ's return.

Because you'll note how he describes these people is exactly how the world has always been.

He says this, understand this, in the last days, there will come times of difficulty. People in the church, they will be narcissists.

They will be lovers of themselves. They will be lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self -control, brutal, not loving the good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God and having the appearance of godliness.

They can pray with their eyes closed and make it sound so good, but denying its power.

And what are we to do? You're going to note then, avoid such people. If a congregation, if a church follows the instructions of Christ and they have a pastor who turns away from the truth, they will follow this text and say, no, we're to avoid you and we're going to get you out of here.

And we're going to put a pastor in place who's going to do the job that he's been given to do. We are told to avoid, not embrace, not financially support, we're told to avoid these people.

Among them are those who creep into households, they capture weak women, burdened with sins, led astray by various passions, always learning, never able to arrive at the knowledge of the truth.

And that was a sad thing for me. I spent a long time in a bad church, long time. And at the end of it,

I had no clue what the Bible taught. But I had my Bible with me every time I showed up at church.

The only thing I knew is that I needed to burn my Beatles albums and listen only to Christian music.

That didn't really work. Just as Janice and John Brees opposed Moses, these men also opposed the truth.

Sure sign you're dealing with a false teacher. You tell them something true from scripture, challenge something that they've said.

And they will get mad at you and blame you. How dare you question me, right?

They oppose the truth. These are men corrupted in mind. They are disqualified regarding the faith. They will not get very far.

Their follow will be plain to all, as was those of those two men. But then here's the admonition.

You, however, young Presbyteroy Timothy, you have followed my teaching, my conduct.

My aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch and at Cainium, at Lystra, which persecutions

I endured. Yet from them all, the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

That is an absolute statement and it's true. You want to be a

Christian? Christ calls you to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him. You will be persecuted.

Well, evil people and imposters who always seem to do so well, they will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

But as for you, young Timothy, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, that's the scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

All scripture, not some, all of it is profitable, is breathed out by God, the

Anustos. It is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work.

There isn't a single good work that Christ will call you to as a Christian that the Bible will not prepare you for.

You do not need modern day prophets and wingnuts and wackerdoodles, you know, declaring false words over you.

You have everything you need in the Bible, which is the inerrant, infallible word of God.

And then he continues. So I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom.

Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season.

And this is the job of a pastor. Preach the word.

As a pastor, I've just taken this literally. You know, if you listen to my sermons,

I preach the word. And it always grieves me when I run across a fellow pastor that's a confessional

Lutheran and he only gives his congregation this much word. No, we need a full plate of the word of God.

Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke and exhort.

Not because you are exalting yourself over your congregation, but because you're under them, serving them, helping them.

You are serving the priesthood of all believers and do this with complete patience and with didache, doctrine.

Probably a better translation than teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.

They will turn away from listening to the truth and they'll wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist and fulfill your ministry.

So hopefully with this, you know, a little more than two hours that we've been together, you at least have an understanding of the pastoral office, why it exists, how it's to serve, and how those who reject the pastoral office to put other things in place, that what they are doing is participating in Korah's rebellion and rejecting

Christ's authority. And they do so to the danger of their own souls.

And yet scripture is very clear that these men whom God calls, whom the Holy Spirit calls to serve the church, they do not do so in order to ingratiate themselves.

He calls them for the purpose of serving his flock the same way that Christ served his flock, by sacrificially serving them and looking out for their souls and keeping guard and watch over them.

And then you'll note then also they are called to be stewards of the mysteries of God, mysteries being the sacraments.

And so then when a church gathers together and if this is their first gathering, they are to call a pastor, somebody who's going to administer the sacraments on their behalf for their benefit, to publicly preach the word and be qualified to do so.

All of this is to the benefit of a congregation, not to its detriment, because Christ, as we've seen, he gives these men in these offices to serve the church and they all belong to us.

So I hope that this was helpful and clarifying. And then if there's any questions, you know, there weren't any last night except for Ingva's question that he had, but if y 'all have any questions,

I would love to field them. Hearing none, then