Pastors and Teachers (Part 1 of 2)

What are the requirements someone who leads a local church as a pastoral Bible teacher. That person maintain any measure of personal balance when there is an endless list of assignments today on Truth for Life.

Alister Ben presents another message in a series on church ministry called the pastor's study. I invite you to turn with me to the Ephesians in chapter 4, Ephesians 4 and verse 11 to 16 and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes, rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Thanks be to God for his word and this return to the Bible we turn to God and pray. Heavenly father we bow in your presence may your word be our rule. May your spirit be our teacher may your greater glory be our supreme concern. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

What are we to do with this role of the pastor teacher is vitally important that both those who seek to fulfill the role and those who are on the receiving end of the exercise of that gift in the congregation understand to give your quote which I think in the opening sentence may catch us all a little off guard.

The pastor teacher holds the greatest office of human responsibility. In all creation imagine just went out into the street this morning and he said now I want to give you a list of possible places that you can fulfill in society we have another prime minister a member of Congress. We have a golf professional cardiothoracic surgeon. We have another think we have a pastor teacher just like you to put them in 126 or whatever it is aware where do you think they'll lie I only be possible.

I don't think pastor teacher even get in the six either the average person say was that what is that about what, why, why would that be included.

The person who said that went on to say he is called to preach the word to teach the truth to God's people to lead God's people in worship to tend the flock as a caring Shepherd and to mobilize the church for Christian witness and service require high calling isn't one immediately. In reading that says no one is sufficient in himself for such a responsibility, thus making both the person called to it and all who seek to support the person called. Aware of the absolute dependence on the grace of God for the fulfilling of the assigned task. Lloyd Jones used to say I would not descend from being a king to assume the role of the Pope. I would be ascending to the role of the pulpit.

And remember, of course, that Lloyd Jones himself was a physician. He was the assistant to Lord Porter who was the physician to the royal family of Great Britain, and he left that in order to begin teaching the Bible in obscurity in Wales in a small Calvinistic Methodist Chapel and everybody said the fellow has got to be crazy. Who would leave such a significant position not just a physician but a physician of such prominence and significance to teach the Bible. What in the world are they thinking about receiving need to think about Dunkley why we where does this at pastor teacher will come from who who came up with the answer is God in Jesus day a is he is put in place as a gift to the church is a gift of the ascended Christ, he is supposed to equip the church by spiritual feeding the ministry of the word of God is than a gift that the people of God, neglect to their peril. Note there are certain fundamentals that undergird all that we have done here over the years apart site. And since we state them seldomly.

I thought I might just remind us of not every court conviction in relationship to this but perhaps just a three. First of all to notice that the pastor teacher is an elder among the other elders in the church that we understand the New Testament pattern of leadership to be one both of parity and of plurality. That's why when Paul writes to Timothy in first Timothy. He says let the elders rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.

So in other words, there is a distinction between some who are giving their leadership to the church and in doing so. Not all are involved in the public pool but ministry that falls to those in this capacity. Secondly, at within that shared leadership as within all leadership. There has to be a leader among the leaders and it is most appropriate.

The one who has the primary teaching role should be that leader so that the rudder that moves the congregation apart site through the water is the rudder essentially of the Scriptures and therefore the one who has the preponderance of the teaching of the Scriptures inevitably it falls to him to exercise that leadership role with that said, our focus is on the purpose for which the gift of pastor teacher has been given to the church is be clear who gave it where and what is its source. The ascended Christ. What is this gift. What are these gifts that he mentions there all gifts of the word. They are all word gifts at the apostles proclaiming the word they said this is these. These are the things that we have seen that we have hair that we have handled that we have charged, we did not come to you. They said with with their notions of the original theory stories and fight as we've said often, we wouldn't have a New Testament apart from the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If Jesus had not risen from the dead. There is no way that we whatever event had any of this stuff written down now so the apostles were in the word. The prophets were in the word.

The evangelists were sending out that word as widely as possible and as churches begin to be established. God says no. I want you to make sure that the role of pastor and teacher is safely in place and the reason for this is stated there in the balance of verse 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry so that the body of Christ may be built. Note this is a slight diversion, but I think it makes a point that is important in the authorized version. The King James version with what I with which I was brought up. There is in that version. Another, you say really like you want to talk about that is I do just for moment I want to tell you aware that, comes verse 12 in the AV reads and for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. Now there is no linguistic authority for commerce any commas anywhere. We don't have them in the original texts okay so it is an endeavor on the part of the translators to make sense of the text and in their wisdom they put it, there but when you read it with her, there it changes the thing entirely. Because what does it do it places all of this squarely in the hands responsibility of the pastor teacher is look at our than reads. He added that there there were given pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the perfecting of the saints, the work of ministry, the building up of the body of Christ. In other words, all of this then becomes the sole prerogative of the poor soul who is entrusted with the job of pastor and teacher.

And that's the way many congregations continue to operate. Hey we we hired him and this is what he's going to do is going to perfect. Equip the saints going to do the works of ministry and take out the garbage is going to do what he what we want to do and if he doesn't do it then will get somebody who will do it. Well that, needs to go for the well-being not only of the pastor teacher, but for the well-being of the congregation, because the entire effective development of a build up congregation demands that I, is not there and then that it reads as it reads four to equip the saints for the works of ministry NIV so that the body of Christ may be built up. The ascended Christ gives a gift to the church.

The role of the pastor and teacher those pastors and teachers then are to equip the people of God for the works of ministry which they do so that the body itself may then actually come to maturity.

So you see when you circumvent that, then you end up with the congregations that are just mar I what is essentially a bottleneck kind of operation note. Three words that I like is to grasp this morning there straightforward. They emerge from the text and invite I wrote down in my notes at moms the word mom not spelled American but spelled English and you and mom and ministry unity and maturity, ministry unity and maturity right to equip the saints for the works of ministry where there is diaconate near the same word that you have is a route for the word Deacon or Deaconess people say to us apart site you don't have any deacons. Well, that's actually inaccurate.

We have hundreds of deacons we have hundreds of people are serving diagonal responsibilities. This charge would actually collapse were it not for that fact or people usually think though is that there is a little room that says the deacons room and always deacons go in there and do what deacons do in the room but in actual fact, it is possible to have the diagonal function without the room and without a little sign. It simply means doing the works of service, the same word that you find in the record of Martha and Mary at remember Martha was distracted with much serving much serving, so the responsibility of the pastor teacher is to equip the saints by teaching the Bible in such a way that the mechanisms and tools for ministry are placed in their hands so that they can effectively work in that way in. In February 1941. Winston Churchill made one of his memorable speeches in London. He knew that it would be Herod in the United States, and he knew exactly what he was doing and rhetorically, he says, in the midst of the speech and if you were to ask me what I would say to Mr. Roosevelt. I would say this givers the tools and we will finish the job given the tools and we will finish the job. And of course Roosevelt of the United States did exactly that and equip the Allied forces for the effect of vanquishing of the Hitler regime.

The tools were absolutely necessary, and there absolutely necessary if the people of God are going to do this kind of ministry. The word for equip is actually a medical word.

It's is a kind of orthopedic word. It would be used for the resetting of a limb.

It's also a word that is found in the Gospels where the disciples are mending their nets and the word that is used, there is the same word there, equipping themselves for their next voyage. So what happens is simply this, that the ministry of God's word is brought home to the lives of God's people by the power of God's spirit so that if you like to stick with the picture of the fishing nets so that the tangled noted disjointed features of our lives are then brought into line with God's plans and purposes so that when we set back out on the voyage of life we have been equipped to do that which we have been enabled to do to radically change the idea of hearing the word of God being taught. It moves it immediately from the idea of was it good wasn't long was it sure did.

I like it didn't move me that it sternly was I happy. Did I feel good. Suddenly all of that is not irrelevant but it is subservient to the question was IFAD was I equipped when I go to this place do I feel that I am being prepared for the voyage of life. Is it helping with with with me in my marriage and my home and my business to the practicalities of Christian living begin to work their way out as the word of God is proclaimed. That's what's begins. That's what's being described here and that is why it is so vitally important. The way in which we listen to the Bible.

James says if you got a filthy mind. If you have an angry heart.

You might as well not even listen to the Bible you need to make sure that when you receive the word he says you receive it with meekness as the implanted word, which is able to save your souls so that the place of the word of God in bringing someone to faith in God is absolutely crucial. I know that there are people who have questions all the time about these things and justifiably so.

And understandably so Paul when he writes to add to the Thessalonians, he says to them, commending in first Thessalonians to a citizen and we also thank God constantly for this that when you receive the word of God which you Herod from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as sport it really is the word of God which is at work in you believers people. I was excellent. I was a big deal about the word of God by the left of the word of God at me.

My cages get out and do something useful in the community. Why why this emphasis we see accepting the authority of God's word is Christian.

It is part of being a Christian answer somebody what about the problems that come along with the problems that come along with everything you don't abandon the love of God because there are problems you investigate the problems in light of the love of God when you do about the Bible when there are problems you don't abandon the Bible because of the problems you believe the Bible and you wrestle with the problems Jesus said to his disciples. You call me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am since he is who he is. We have no freedom to disagree with what he says nor do we have any freedom to disobey what he says see it ultimately comes down to this fundamental matter is Jesus Christ the person he claimed to be, and then if he in his ascended glory has given this gift to the church. We are to make sure that were paying attention to know what I want us to understand as well as this, you will notice that the direct link is not there between we teach the Bible and the church matures know the Bible is taught the sensor equipped they do the works of ministry and the church is built up. So in other words, there is a missing link. Is there if we fail to understand that the way in which we only not only receive the Bible when it is taught to us by the way in which we taken away with is insane. Now there are implications for this so that the if you like the spiritual and the numerical growth of the church, under God is directly related to all who are members of the church doing what they're supposed to do will come to this later on.

Some of us you notice the phrase at the end of verse 16.

When each part is working properly.

When each part is working properly.

Jolly CAT scan fingers makes that horrible noise of B working properly. She's not the cat scans the MRI place and noise. This changes everything is in its school and in Scotland we used to sing, there is a work for Jesus ready at your hand. It's a task. The master just for you has plan Hayes to do his bidding, yield him service to. There is a work for Jesus. None.

But you can do as suggested believe that that God has given to you a place and a purpose and a function to look around and say, but I'm not bad and I'm not him, and I'm not her forget that. Learn to savor the old Anglican Bishop. I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. What I can do. I ought to do and what I ought to do with God's help, I will not love ones is ministry ministry and as a result of that the church is built on listing to Truth for Life in today's study in Ephesians 4 Alistair Begggett fired three words three purposes that keep a pastor focused on his primary duties ministry unity and maturity that we need more time to develop these points so we invite you to join us again tomorrow as Alister's message about pastors and teachers continues October is recognized as pastor appreciation month and to honor and help church leaders were presenting this current teaching series called the pastor's study. In addition to these daily programs.

We've also provided a recommended reading list on our website. Whether you're engaged in youth ministry preaching ministry or teaching a small group Bible study. You'll find resources in this collection.

Some of our favorite books. Find the listed Truth for Life.org/pastor or check it out on the truth for like mobile app Tim Kelly's is a pastor and the popular blogger.

He writes on issues related to church leadership and were pleased to be offering his new book called epic. The subtitle of the book is and around the world journey through Christian history Tim log more than 180,000 miles on a global scavenger hunt of sorts. He documented 33 different objects that tell the story of our Christian legacy and these are artifacts you might not think about. Immediately things like a drug or an airplane radio tower even graffiti found in ancient Israel. The book epic will open your eyes to the wonderful stories about pioneers like Martin Luther, Amy Carmichael, Billy Graham and some of the fascinating objects they left behind. Would love to send you a copy of this informative and educational book. It's yours. When you give a donation to support Truth for Life. You can request it by going to Truth for Life.org/donate or click the book image you find on our mobile app you can also call right now. 888-588-7884. Part of the mission the Truth for Life is to strengthen local churches.

You should know when you give to this ministry. You're the one who's making it possible for pastors and Bible teachers for all of us were part of a local church to have access to clear and relevant Bible teaching. So thank you for joining us in this effort to strengthen local churches. Again, call 888-588-7884 or send your donation along with the request for the book epic to Truth for Life at PO Box 39, 8000, Cleveland, OH 44139 Bob Lapine coping can listen again tomorrow teaching God's word in achieving spiritual maturity go hand-in-hand Thursday. Alister explains the biblical mandate for pastors to do both things the Bible teaching of Alistair Begggest furnished by Truth for Life with the Learning is for Living