What about ministry gives you joy? – Mat Alexander

By / Feb 25

Ftc.co asks Matt Alexander ‘What about Ministry gives you joy?’.



Praying Psalm 62 with Charles Spurgeon

By / Feb 25

“If God is real, I’m sure He’s too busy to care about the details of my life.” A friend said this to me years ago with exasperation and resignation in his voice. Perhaps you’ve heard some version of this yourself. Maybe you’ve even heard it inside the church. “You should only pray for really big things, like God’s glory among the nations—don’t pray for little things like a good parking spot.”

These statements reflect a deeper question: Can we really approach God with confidence? Can we actually bring Him our smallest, most earthly requests? There’s a Psalm just for these questions, and the 19th-century preacher Charles Spurgeon helps us discover its riches.

How to Pray from the Heart

There are many Psalms that invite us to bring ourselves honestly and completely before God. But in my opinion, Psalm 62 is the most powerful of them all.

David opens his song with a word of praise, as he often does: “Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him” (v. 1, NIV). As soon as he praises God like this, though, David reaches the purpose of his prayer. “How long will you assault me? Would all of you throw me down—this leaning wall, this tottering fence?” (v. 3).

What a vibrant illustration of David’s situation. His enemies are after him. They’re cursing him and intending to knock him down from his royal position. He feels like a leaning wall, a broken-down fence. At any moment, he could come collapsing down.

No doubt, you’ve felt like this before. You know what it’s like to feel overwhelmed with life. Work is too much, people are demanding, and someone seems out to get you. It feels like the weight of the world is on your shoulders, and you’re not sure if anyone can help you. Where do we go with all this pressure and fear?

David knows he can approach God with all this. It’s not too much for God. David can come directly to the Lord of Hosts with his immediate needs and urgent requests. He continues:

“Yes, my soul, find rest in God;

my hope comes from him.

Trust in him at all times, you people;

pour out your hearts to him,

for God is our refuge” (v. 8, emphasis added).

Here, the king vacillates between preaching to his own heart and calling Israel to trust in the Lord. “Rest in God!” he tells his own soul. “Trust in him at all times, you people!” he adds. And he speaks to us—all of us in our own desperate situations wondering if we can bring our grandest and most insignificant requests to an almighty God. David says, “Pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.” Centuries after David, Jeremiah picks up his phrase, writing, “Pour out your hearts like water in the presence of the Lord,” in calling Israel to repentance in Lamentations 2:19.

Now, this is a beautiful phrase: Pour out your hearts to God. It’s not hard to understand, but if we can fully internalize its powerful invitation, it will truly transform our prayer lives. And there’s a sure guide to help us there.

Charles Spurgeon on True Prayer

In his majestic, three-volume Treasury of David, Charles Spurgeon meditates on this phrase for no small amount of time. What does it mean to pour out our hearts? And how can we know we can do this? Spurgeon writes:

You to whom his love is revealed, reveal yourselves to him. His heart is set on you, lay bare your hearts to him. Turn the vessel of your soul upside down in his secret presence, and let your inmost thoughts, desires, sorrows, and sins be poured out like water. Hide nothing from him, for you can hide nothing. To the Lord, unburden your soul… To keep our griefs to ourselves is to hoard up wretchedness. The stream will swell and rage if you dam it up; give it a clear course, and it leaps along and creates no alarm.[1]

The Psalms are God’s way of saying, “Don’t make sure you sanitize your prayers.” You can come to God just as you are. Your prayers can’t be too honest for God; He knows what’s going on in your heart already.

Give the Lord your everything; He can handle it. We don’t have to hold it all together and clean ourselves up. We don’t have to do this life in our own strength. God wants to give us His joy, peace, and strength. And He desires to pour these gifts into us through prayer. Our job is to empty ourselves first, so that we might have ample room to receive them.

But why do the psalmist and prophet call us to pour out our hearts like water? Spurgeon reflects:

Pour [your heart] out as water. Not as milk, whose color remains. Not as wine, whose savor remains. Not as honey, whose taste remains. But as water, of which, when it is poured out, nothing remains. So let sin be poured out of the heart, that no color of it may remain in external marks, no savor in our words, no taste in our affections.[2]

David and Jeremiah (and Spurgeon) want to show us something of the nature of our prayers. Rather than a slow, careful reciting of words, our prayers can be the natural, unfiltered overflow of our hearts and minds. When we are bursting at the seams with the worries and demands of this life, God has given us a release valve. When we are full, we can pour out.

We’re not just pouring out prayers though; we’re pouring out our very hearts. Our hearts can remain largely hidden from us. We barely understand why we do what we do and why certain things just poured out of our mouths. Prayer is a way of discovering our own hearts. As we give our hearts to God in prayer, we are giving Him the core and essence of our lives. We are giving ourselves completely to Him. Spurgeon adds:

If you fear lest there remain anything in your heart not poured forth, bring the whole heart, and cast it before the eyes of the Lord, and sacrifice it to him, that he may create a new heart in thee.[3]

This is the image God has chosen to give us for our praying lives. Just pour it out. Let it flow. Don’t hold back. Spills and messes will happen, and there will be days when you feel like a puddle on the floor. But God’s welcome is simple: Pour out your heart.

God Pours Out, Too

Beautifully, there’s another side to this. When we pour out, God pours out on us, too. God’s blessing also flows like water. He is the God of abundance and overflow. As the self-existent source and replenisher of life, our Father pours out His own goodness and peace, even as we pour out our hearts like water before Him.

Sound too good to be true? Romans 5:5 promises, “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts by his Holy Spirit.”

God’s blessing being poured into us happens simultaneously to our pouring out our hearts in His presence. The weak pouring out anxiousness, confusion, and need, and the strong pouring out love, strength, and blessing in response—all like water.

Our hearts were made to be poured out. Your ever-loving Father waits for you to bring all your rants and ramblings to Him. Spurgeon concludes,

Sympathy we need, and if we unload our hearts at Jesus’ feet, we shall obtain a sympathy as practical as it is sincere, as consolatory as it is ennobling.[4]

This, Spurgeon knew, is the essence of prayer: Pour out your heart to God, and He will pour His joy, strength, and love back into you. Amen and amen.

__________

[1] Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David: Volume 2, 51.

[2] Spurgeon, 58.

[3] Spurgeon, 58.

[4] Spurgeon, 58.

Editor’s note: For more encouragement in prayer, see Jeremy Linneman’s forthcoming book Pour Out Your Heart: Discovering Joy, Strength, and Intimacy with God through Prayer, available this March from B&H Publishing.



The Strategic Value of Pastoral Hospitality

By / Feb 21

Editor’s note: This article is the final entry of a four-part series. Access the full series here.

In this final entry in this series, I wish to note the strategic value of pastoral hospitality for the contemporary local church. I suggest that the pastoral ministry of hospitality has excellent potential for improving the local church’s health. My argument here rests on my analysis of New Testament passages in the previous post and my personal experience as a pastor and seminary professor. I have served as the teaching pastor at The Master’s Community Church (SBC) for 25 years. I have taught New Testament and Greek at Midwestern Seminary for nearly a decade, serving as Dean of Graduate Studies for five years. From my vantage point, pastoral hospitality is strategic for enhancing the local church’s health for at least three reasons.

Pastoral Hospitality to the Needy Models God’s Benevolence and Defends the Gospel

Hospitality is love for strangers and outsiders, of whom the contemporary world is not short on supply. Wars and family crises have resulted in no small increase in the number of refugees and displaced children. A healthy local church knows that the world needs to see us caring for the vulnerable. It is hard to imagine a more at-risk demographic than children in the foster care system, many of whom await adoption. I know of no more difficult ministry. I likewise know of no ministry that more acutely objectifies God’s care for the needy and shuts the mouths of those who accuse the Church of selfishness and hypocrisy.

But orphans are not the only demographic the pastor might host. God is drawing many refugees in the United States to Himself, and pastors have the unique position to disciple and train them for church planting. One of the most invigorating ministries my church and Midwestern Seminary students have engaged in over the last three years has been with Afghan refugees who have been placed in Kansas City. We have cooperated to serve these families in job placement, language learning, medical assistance, driving lessons, and the gospel. Some of the families were believers when they arrived. I have had the great joy of hosting them and being in their homes for ministry planning and leadership development.

Pastoral Hospitality Cultivates Fellowship and Leadership Development

One metric for gauging a local church’s health is how diverse demographics in the church interact with one another. When my wife and I host, I try to gather people who are not naturally connected. I invite new attendees or church members to join us and include more seasoned members in the invitation. If we are hosting students, I ask non-students, even retirees, to join us as well. Pastoral hospitality creates a natural structure for Paul’s directive that older believers should teach younger ones and younger ones should learn from those more mature in the faith (Titus 2:1–5). I hope never to forget when I was hosting an age-diverse small group and overheard an older couple offer to rent a large home and property at a very reduced price to a younger couple so the young couple could leave their small apartment and begin doing foster care ministry, or when a retiree shared over brunch how a younger couple could participate in the children’s ministry of our church.

Pastoral hospitality also provides a relational environment to develop leaders for ministry. This was true for me. A pastor asked my wife and me to join him and his wife for dinner one cold January evening in 1997. While I was employed as an elementary teacher in a local school, my evenings and weekends were busy with church ministry, leading a small group and a Sunday School class. We had just sat down to dinner when the pastor asked if I had ever sensed a call to pastoral ministry. When we got up to leave, my life had changed. I have used that same practice of asking deeper-level, calling kinds of questions while my wife and I host potential leaders and students, casting vision for ministry as the conversation unfolds.

Pastoral Hospitality Allows the Pastor to Model Christian Family Life and Family Worship

Authenticity is a buzzword in contemporary ministry. Church health is displayed by gospel authenticity in relationships. When pastors are hospitable, people see God’s glory in the everyday stuff of our lives. If people are in my home long enough, usually not very long, they will see foibles and failures and hear apologies. At some point, they will see a husband loving his wife like Christ does the Church and a wife submitting to her husband as the Church does to Christ. They will see parents training their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. They will hear issues of the day discussed from a Christian worldview.

As we serve dessert, guests will be invited to join us as we read Scripture, pray, and sing. I have found that most men in my church and students in my classes do not learn how to lead family worship by reading books about it but by seeing me lead my family as we enjoy brownie sundaes and coffee. When meeting with that man individually after having his family in my home, I can follow up and fill in the gaps.

Pastoral Hospitality as Preventive Medicine

People will often ask me, “How’s your church?” After 25 years of serving in the same congregation, one would think that I could have a better answer. “I hope things are going well…” I often quip. Truth is, even the most hospitable and relational pastor knows only a portion of what God is doing in his flock. And those who have been in ministry for a season or two know how rapidly a church can change. God allows cancer, sin, economic pressures, and a host of other situations upon His people, and pastors are called to guide God’s people through them. Pastoral hospitality deepens relational roots so that when storms come upon the flock, the needy and vulnerable sheep will have every reason to heed the voice of their undershepherds. The devil prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking to devour weak sheep (1 Pet. 5:8). Pastoral hospitality establishes relational structures that prevent the devil from succeeding.



The Pastor As Host

By / Feb 20

Editor’s note: This article is part three of a four-part series. Access the full series here.

I suggested in the first entry in this series that a covenantal framework can be identified in the Lord’s hospitality in Exodus 24. Though Jesus’s hospitality to the eleven in John 21 does not have the same covenantal framework, in both passages, God effectively hosts a select figure to train him for ministry leadership: Moses for Israel and Peter for the apostles.

In the second entry, I noted that hospitality is a ministry of all kinds of leaders in Scripture. And they undertake this ministry with urgency. Abraham (Gen. 19), David (2 Sam. 9), and the public official Publius of Malta (Acts 28:1–10) extend hospitality with respect to their leadership positions.

In this third entry, I want to explore Paul’s statement that pastors must be hospitable. In the local church, pastoral hospitality reflects God’s care for the needy and establishes an environment for supplying and training ministry leaders. The qualifications for pastoral leadership express a man’s relational aptitude for leading a local church. Whether we consider the list Paul writes in 1 Timothy 3:1–7 or Titus 1:5–9, each quality more or less has in view a man’s ability to reflect God’s character as he relates with people inside and outside the church.

The pastor must reflect God in his closest relationships. He must husband his wife (1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:6a) and manage his household well (1 Tim. 3:4–5; Titus 1:6b). The pastor must also display God’s character in the more extended relationships of his life. He must be hospitable, a lover of strangers and outsiders (1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:8).

When studying the pastoral qualifications listed in 1 Timothy 3:1–7 or Titus 1:5–9, we must recognize two ways they might become fodder for eisegesis. First, we must remember that no one pastoral qualification functions in isolation. Relational aptitude functions as the hub into which these qualities fit as spokes. In aggregate, these features of a man’s life position him to reflect God as he leads the church. Second, the lists of qualifications should not be isolated from Paul’s flow of thought in 1 Timothy and Titus. These qualifications for pastors contribute to Paul’s broader portrait of beliefs and behaviors the church must embrace in light of Jesus’s death, resurrection, ascension, and promised return. These qualifications signify the pastor’s character in relation to God and the ministry of the new covenant.

Having identified the conceptual framework of these pastoral qualifications and pitfalls to avoid when interpreting them, we can consider Paul’s statement that the pastor must be hospitable. I identify two reasons why Paul lists hospitality as a qualification for pastoral ministry.

Hospitality Enacts God’s Care to the Needy

In Titus, Paul repeatedly notes the importance of good works. The opponents of the gospel lack good works (1:16). Titus is to be an example of good works (2:7). Believers are to reflect their redemption by being eager to do good works (2:14), ready to do good works in the public sphere as they relate to governing authorities (3:1). Believers are to be careful to devote themselves to good works (3:8). Paul concludes the letter saying, “Let our people learn to devote themselves to good works for pressing needs, so that they will not be unfruitful” (Titus 3:14, CSB).

The good works Paul has in mind would doubtless include caring for one’s own needy family, especially widows (1 Tim. 5:3–16). If a believing widow has no family and finds herself without the means for independent living, to whom might she look for assistance? A pastor’s hospitality and leadership would prove invaluable. Paul’s concern in 1 Timothy 5:3–16 that widows be taken care of reflects God’s demand that His people care for the widow and orphan, stated throughout the Old Testament (e.g., Deut. 24:10–22; Ps. 68:4–6; Jer. 7:3–8) and in James 1:27.

Hospitality is Necessary for Multiplying Ministry Leadership

Hospitality in the local church features prominently in 2 and 3 John. Believers show their faith by welcoming into their homes brothers and sisters who confess Christ, to refresh them and share in their ministries (2 John 9–11; 3 John 5–8). In 3 John 9–10, John condemns Diotrephes for refusing to be hospitable and forbidding believers to host ministers as they travel. Pastors who welcome those who go out to spread the gospel of Jesus’s death and resurrection have the dual effect of meeting the immediate needs of those ministers and modeling hospitality for the church. It may be this kind of ministry that Jesus has in view when He describes hospitality as the fulcrum of judgment in the analogy of the sheep and the goats (Matt. 25:31–46).

I noted that pastoral hospitality should not be understood in isolation from Paul’s broader portrait of ministry in the Pastoral Epistles. One pastoral task Paul notes repeatedly is training leaders who will join in and carry out new covenant ministry. Timothy is to labor in training those who will lead the church (1 Tim. 4:11–16). He is to deal with church elders justly, patiently affirming them to the pastoral office (1 Tim. 5:17–22). Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2, “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” One unique feature of pastoral hospitality is that it provides a relational atmosphere for training those who will join in ministry leadership. Pastoral hospitality thus reflects the Lord’s hospitality to Moses and Israel’s leaders in Exodus 24 and Jesus’s hospitality to Peter and the disciples in John 21.

Hope for Those Hesitant to Host

We should recognize that pastors are not the only church members who strengthen the church through hospitality. Paul urges the Romans to pursue hospitality (Rom. 12:13), and Peter commands the churches in view in 1 Peter to be hospitable without complaining (1 Pet. 4:9).

While the lists of qualifications in 1 Timothy 3:1–7 and Titus 1:5–9 filter those who are not called, they also guide men who are. And every man called to shepherd God’s people is growing on a spectrum of consistency in these characteristics. If you need to grow in hospitality, I first suggest lowering your expectations regarding the formal details of the event itself. The meal and setting need not be extravagant. Simple, moderate food, drink, and environment foster the best atmosphere for pastoral hospitality. Second, develop a specific prayer list for those you want to host. Who around you is needy? Who in your sphere of influence does God seem to be calling to leadership? Pray for them daily for a week and then make the invite. God will give you courage and prepare them to hear from you. Finally, chat with other leaders about your need to grow as a host. Heed their counsel on how to be a hospitable man, not just a meal or event host. Let them prune away selfishness and broaden your love for God and the Church.



Leaders As Hosts

By / Feb 19

Editor’s note: This article is part two of a four-part series. Access the full series here.

In the first post in this series, I noted that God is hospitable. The Lord’s hospitality to Moses and Israel’s leaders in Exodus 24 stops careful readers in their tracks. What a God! He is holy but personal. And Jesus’s hospitality to Peter and the disciples on the shore of Galilee humbles us. So kind is the resurrected Son. God reveals Himself as a host in these two scenes and many other places in Scripture.

Hospitality is also a human activity in Scripture, especially for leaders. Here, I want to draw attention to one quality that surfaces consistently in scenes where leaders show hospitality in Scripture: urgency. I will trace this theme in three instances.

Abraham’s Hasty Hospitality Toward His Three Guests (Gen. 18)

Abraham’s hospitality to the three men who visited him in Genesis 18 contributes more broadly to the storyline of Genesis and Scripture. First, these visitors confirm God’s covenant promise to Abraham. What God promised Abraham in Genesis 12:1–3 and 15:1–6 (cf. Rom. 4:18–21) had not yet been realized. Abraham and Sarah were aged. As Abraham hosted these men, the Lord spoke to Abraham and announced that the time for him and Sarah to have a son had now arrived. Within one year, Sarah would give birth to a son (18:10). This was beyond belief for Sarah. She laughed. She wondered if she could have the delight of a child when Abraham, her lord, was old. Furthermore, in Sarah’s statement, Peter saw a title that all Christian women should apply to their husbands (1 Pet. 3:6).

These two pillars of biblical theology are rooted in Abraham’s prompt hospitality to the three visitors. When Abraham first saw them, he hastened to greet them and offer food and drink to refresh them after their travels (18:1–5). When they agreed to stay, “Abraham hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, ‘Quick! Knead three measures of fine flour and make bread’” (v. 6, CSB).

David’s Determined Hospitality Toward Mephibosheth (2 Sam. 9)

The Lord’s covenant with David in 2 Samuel 7 casts a long shadow over redemptive history. The promise that an heir of David will sit on David’s throne and rule over Israel is realized once and for all in Jesus, God’s eternal Son (Luke 1:32–33; Heb. 1:5). Even in the near context of 2 Samuel 8–10, scene after scene demonstrates that the Lord has indeed established David as ruling king over His people.

In 2 Samuel 8–10, David is victorious in all directions. David’s military successes immediately confirm God’s covenant with him. Sandwiched between these chapters is the account of David’s hospitality to Mephibosheth. David’s hospitality fulfills his covenant obligation to Jonathan, Saul’s son. In 1 Samuel 20:11–17, David entered a covenant with Jonathan to watch over Jonathan’s household should David outlive him. Jonathan knew that David was the Lord’s anointed. Now that David was established as king over Israel and Judah, he was determined to fulfill his covenant with Jonathan.

He was so determined that he expanded that covenant to include not only Jonathan but any of Saul’s household (2 Sam. 9:1). When Saul’s servant Ziba reported that there was a son of Jonathan yet living, David was immediately determined to bring him to Jerusalem (v. 5). David restored land to Mephibosheth and appointed Saul’s servant Ziba to manage it for him. “So Mephibosheth ate at David’s table just like one of the king’s sons” (v. 11).

Publius of Malta’s Public Hospitality Toward Paul and the Shipwrecked Prisoners (Acts 28:1–10)

Acts 27 is one of the longest chapters in Acts. And it is entirely about a sea voyage and a shipwreck. The boat carrying Paul and his fellow prisoners to Rome ran aground at Malta, breaking into pieces. The crew and prisoners made it to shore, and the people of Malta welcomed them. Paul gathered wood, and when he placed it on the fire, a viper came out and bit his hand. The people of Malta knew Paul was a prisoner and surmised that the god of Justice was paying Paul back for his crimes. When Paul shook the viper off and it was consumed in the fire, they thought Paul was a god (Acts 28:1–6).

All of this precipitated a local official, Publius, to promptly extend hospitality to Paul and company. For three days, Publius entertained the shipwrecked mates. Publius may have been curious about this crew of prisoners and soldiers or Paul and the viper. Or, Publius could have been just doing what civic leaders should do in offering hospitality to Roman guards while they were transporting prisoners. But God had plans to glorify Himself by blessing Publius in his hospitality. During these three days, “Publius’s father was in bed suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went to him, and praying and laying his hands on him, he healed him” (v. 8). Then many who were ill on the island, under Publius’s jurisdiction, came to Paul and were healed (v. 9). The people of the isle heaped honors on Paul and crew, sending them off with supplies for the journey to Rome (v. 10).

Hospitality and the Supremacy of God

I have chosen to note three scenes of urgent hospitality in Scripture. More are on offer but these give a sense of the general tenor of hospitality that leaders extend to those around them. And they do so with a sense of gusto.

Good leaders know that they are no more effective than the relationships and partnerships they maintain at any moment during the tenure of their position. Hospitality provides leaders the opportunity to evaluate, gain, and maintain relationships to secure and strengthen their positions. Godly leaders see the Lord as the arbiter of their office, and they host to express His character and participate in His redemptive purposes.

One subgroup of leaders, elders in the local church, must be hospitable, as Paul writes in 1 Timothy 3:3 and Titus 1:8. In the next post, I will describe how pastoral hospitality makes sense as a qualification for men called to lead a local church.



Episode 303: Endurance

By / Feb 19

The author of Hebrews says endurance produces proven character. How so? What is endurance? How do we get it? In this episode of the podcast, Jared and Ross talk about the relevance of endurance to ministry and the Christian life in general.

From January to March, you’ll have the opportunity to hear from Midwestern Seminary professors about their areas of expertise, and ask them any questions you want! Completely online and FREE, you can sign up for any and all FTC Talks below to reserve your spot. We hope these conversations will spur you on in your service to the local church and help you connect with even more ministry leaders and friends across the country. We’ll see you soon!



How does a Pastor’s leadership change as his Church grows? – Clint Pressley

By / Feb 18

Ftc asks pastor Clint Presley ‘How does a Pastor’s leadership change as his Church grows?’.



God’s Covenantal Hospitality

By / Feb 18

Editor’s note: This article is part one of a four-part series. Access the full series here.

From Genesis to Revelation, God reveals Himself to be a host. The Garden of Eden can be viewed as God’s creative activity to host Adam and Eve as His vice-regents who manage the banquet hall of creation. God hosts Israel for 40 years, providing food for the duration of their wilderness wandering (Exod. 16). Isaiah prophesies that the mountain of God will be an end-times banquet hall where the Lord of hosts will prepare a feast to celebrate death’s defeat (Isa. 25:6­–8). The final scenes of John’s vision in Revelation include the Marriage Feast of the Lamb (Rev. 19:6–10).

In most instances, the Lord’s hospitality in the Old Testament had Israel in view. One such occasion is reported as part of the covenant ceremony Moses enacted for Israel in Exodus 24.

In the first entry in this series, I want to note how the Lord’s hospitality to Israel’s leaders in Exodus 24 contributes to Moses’s covenant ceremony. I will then note points of contact with Jesus’s hospitality to the eleven after His resurrection, suggesting ways that Jesus’s seaside hospitality contributes to His dialogue with Peter and new covenant ministry.

After establishing the covenantal framework of divine hospitality, in successive entries, I will observe how hospitality is a task leaders in Scripture undertake with great haste and how it qualifies men for pastoral ministry in the local church. I will conclude with a fourth post demonstrating how hospitality contributes to church health.

The Lord’s Hospitality to Israel’s Leaders

Among the Lord’s personal manifestations in the Old Testament, His invitation to Israel’s leaders in Exodus 24 casts a long shadow. This scene serves as a pivot point in a unit that begins with the Lord’s appearance on Sinai in Exodus 19 and culminates with Moses descending the mountain with the stone tablets at the end of Exodus 31. In Exodus 19, the Lord commanded Moses to have the people stand at a distance as He descended upon the mountain and covered it with smoke, fire, lightning, and thunder. These visible manifestations confirm Moses’s words to the people. The Lord was with them and had instructed them through His servant Moses.

The frightening appearance of the Lord on Sinai in Exodus 19 establishes two features of the Mosaic covenant. First, the Lord is holy, and His people must revere Him. In the immediate context, this included keeping themselves at a safe physical distance (Exod. 19:9–13, 19–25). Second, the Lord chose Moses as His spokesman, and the people must heed Moses’s instructions (Exod. 19:7–10; 20:18–21).

These two themes place in bold the Lord’s invitation for Moses and Israel’s leaders to join Him on the mountain for a meal in Exodus 24. The covenant ceremony Moses led in Exodus 24 began with his instruction to the people and their pledge of obedience (v. 3). After writing the Lord’s instructions for the people (v. 4), Moses sent young men to sacrifice bulls for burnt offerings and fellowship offerings (v. 5). Moses took the scroll he had written and read it to the people, sprinkling them with the blood of the bulls that had been sacrificed (vv. 7–8). Moses’s leadership in Exodus 24 directly fulfills the Lord’s intentions for Moses described in Exodus 19 and 20. Moses was the Lord’s authoritative spokesman.

And the Lord wanted to host Moses and Israel’s leaders on the mountain. In obedience to the Lord’s invitation in Exodus 24:1–2, Moses led Aaron, Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu, and Israel’s 70 elders up the mountain (v. 9). They saw the Lord but were not consumed, eating in the presence of the Lord (vv. 10–11)! From the moment the Lord descended on the mountain in Exodus 19 to this point in the narrative, the Lord had demanded that Israel stay away from Him lest His holy presence consume them. But now, in Exodus 24, He hosted Moses and Israel’s leaders in near proximity, disclosing Himself to them as they ate. Moses and Joshua then proceeded up the mountain, and Moses stayed in the Lord’s presence for 40 days and nights. (vv. 13–18).

The Lord hosted Moses on Mount Sinai to establish Moses as His authoritative spokesman, the one He chose to mediate His instruction to Israel. Having hosted Moses to prepare him for leadership, the Lord sent Moses down the mountain with the stone tablets (Exod. 31:18).

Jesus’s Hospitality to the Eleven after His Resurrection

The Gospel of John is not short on drama, and the final chapter does not disappoint. It all begins with Peter leading the disciples on a fishing expedition (John 21:3). But they caught nothing. In the morning, Jesus called to them from the shore. Two of Jesus’s statements informed the eleven about who was calling to them. First, Jesus was aware that they had caught nothing. Second, He told them to try the other side of the boat, and they would have a full catch (vv. 5–6). After the eleven did so and saw many fish in the net, Peter recognized that the resurrected Lord Jesus was speaking to them from the shore! In high drama, Peter disrobed and swam to Jesus as the other disciples followed in the boat (vv. 7–8).

Jesus was prepared to host Peter and the other disciples. Already, He had fish cooking over the fire (v. 9). Peter dragged the full net to the shore, and they added some of the day’s catch to what Jesus had on the fire. The eleven were in the presence of the risen Lord Jesus. He was hosting them for brunch, and John writes, “This was now the third time Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead” (v. 14, CSB).

Jesus’s hospitality to the eleven, framed by Peter’s robust pursuit of the Lord, becomes the setting where Jesus restored Peter to ministry. In vv. 15–19, Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him, challenging Peter to embrace his leadership role despite the suffering that would come with it.

Though Jesus’s hospitality to the eleven in John 21 lacks the formal language of the covenant ceremony Moses enacted in Exodus 24, points of contact remain. In both scenes, divine hospitality is extended to human leaders to equip them for their ministries in God’s redemptive program.

This conclusion will frame my third post, where I will look at the pastoral qualification that elders must be hospitable (1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:8). In my next post, however, I will highlight a key characteristic of biblical hospitality: urgency.

Responding in Worship and Work

But before wrapping up here, let’s consider: How should we respond to the thought of God hosting us? This is a gospel fact that compels our response in two ways.

First, let us worship God for His kindness in inviting us into His presence and serving us. How do you picture Jesus’s face as He, the eternal Son, taking up human flesh, showed Peter and the eleven the fish He already had cooking over the fire? See that smile? Worship Him!

Second, let us get to work. God has gifted His people with abilities, and if you are reading this blog, He has likely given you abilities to lead the church. Do you love Jesus? Feed His sheep.



The One Gift Every Pastor Must Have

By / Feb 16

In the midst of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, Warren Buffet famously observed, “It’s when the tide goes out that you see who’s skinny dipping.” Buffet was reflecting on the banks and investment firms that had insufficient capital to meet their financial obligations during the great recession.

Buffet’s observation applies to the ministry as well. When you stand before God’s people with Bible in hand, the tide goes out. It is in those moments, when you attempt to speak on behalf of God, that all will see the veracity of your calling.

For pastors, preaching and teaching God’s Word has a way of stripping us all bare; it exposes us and puts our gifting on public display. You can’t finesse your way through a sermon with polished appearance, warm people skills, or seminary credentials alone. In the moment of truth, your ability—or lack thereof—to teach and preach God’s Word reveals much about your calling.

This is the way it should be because the one called to the ministry is called to a ministry of the Word. God sets him apart to teach and preach His Word. This clarifying stipulation both challenges and reassures us. Those whom God has truly called; he has truly gifted for the task. Every pastor must be gifted to teach the Word; and every qualified pastor is.

“Able to Teach”

In I Timothy 3:1-7, the ability to teach is the distinguishing mark between the elder and the deacon. Both are expected to be godly, but only the office of elder requires an ability to teach. There are a thousand ways a minister can serve the church, but he has one indispensable and nonnegotiable responsibility—to preach and teach the Word of God.

Since the pastor’s primary duty is to preach and teach God’s word, he who would hold the office must be equal to the task. Literally, lives are at stake. The health of the church rises or falls with the pulpit.

Preaching includes teaching, but teaching may or may not include preaching. Both convey biblical truth, but the latter includes public proclamation—heralding the truth of Scripture to the gathered congregation.

Preaching and teaching are not distinct categories, but rather distinct venues or distinct outlets. As a wise professor once told me, “Preaching should never be anything less than teaching the Bible, but it should always be more than a Bible study.”

It is interesting that the “ability to teach” is the only qualification related to the pastor’s gifting or ability. I’m struck by what God left out of this list. In addition to sterling character, the would-be pastor isn’t required to be a gifted leader, a competent manager, a creative genius, or possess a magnetic personality—all of which come in handy in ministry. There is one gift, and only one gift, the pastor must possess. He must be able to teach.

Why Preaching?

Preaching is God’s divinely ordained means of communicating his Word, of nourishing his church, and of redeeming a people for himself. Other ministerial activities may compliment preaching, but no ministerial activity should displace preaching.

As Spurgeon warned:

“I do not look for any other means of converting men beyond the simple preaching of the gospel and the opening of men’s ears to hear it. The moment the church of God shall despise the pulpit, God will despise her. It has been through the ministry that the Lord has always been pleased to revive and bless his churches.”[1]

God only had one Son, and he made him a preacher. Scripture tells us, “Jesus came preaching,” and then he sent his disciples out to preach.[2] From the prophets of old, to Pentecost, to the end of the age, preaching is God’s appointed means to convey his message.

“Preach the Word,” a Simple Command

Every preacher can readily identify with the Apostle Paul’s binding charge to Timothy, “Preach the Word.” This charge is situated at the end of Paul’s final letter to his son in the faith, Timothy, and it encapsulates the broader biblical expectation that ministers faithfully discharge their responsibilities of faithfully preaching and teaching the Word.

As Paul is writing II Timothy, he knows his death is near. Christians are being persecuted. False prophets are plaguing the church. Many who named Christ as Savior have fallen away. Timothy himself is vacillating in the faith and questioning his call. Paul is writing his final letter, as the dying words of a dying man, to a distressed church and a discouraged son.

In this salutary charge, he tells Timothy, “Preach the Word.” This exhortation occurs—explicitly and implicitly—throughout Scripture, but nowhere more conspicuously than here.  And it appears with added momentum, because of its context in this book, and in the lives of Paul, Timothy, and the church. There is a degree of narrowing earnestness, of focused deliberateness from Paul to Timothy, to us.

In II Timothy 3, Paul documents the catastrophic affects of man’s sinfulness, and presents the ministerial antidote—preaching God’s Word—which is inspired, inerrant, authoritative, and sufficient. We are called to “Preach the Word” because the days are evil, and the Scriptures are powerful. For preachers, II Timothy 4:2 has a certain romance to it—a magnetic pull, calling us back again and again and again to our central responsibility.

The call to preach—in light of so many problems in the society and the church—appears simplistic, but those are God’s instructions. To preach means “to herald, to lift up one’s voice, to proclaim.” It is to speak boldly, even loudly, without fear, and to make truth known.

Again, there is simplicity in Paul’s charge, “Preach the Word” There is a beautiful simplicity, an unmistakable clarity to this instruction. There is no need to clarify which word, or whose word.  Rather, we are called to preach the Word—God’s Word. In fact, the premise of preaching the Word is built upon the entire canon of Scripture, and it roars throughout this book.

If you are not convinced of Scripture—its truthfulness, authority, relevance, and power—then you will be disinclined to preach the Word. You may look to it for sermon points because that is what evangelical preachers are to do, but you’ll never let the Word be the point and points of your sermon.

Essential Ingredients of Preaching and Teaching

While a quick wit, booming voice, and strong self-presentation are helpful elements, the key ingredients of faithful preaching should be preset. Faithful preaching has two essential ingredients, and he that is called to preach should cultivate both.

These two components are study of the Word and proclamation of the Word. To emphasize either to the de-emphasis of the other is error. Here we must maintain intentional balance.

Some more naturally enjoy the process of preparing sermons. They enjoy digging into the text of Scripture, rightly interpreting it, constructing an exegetical outline and stitching together a sermon. This is good, and no one should enter ministry without intending to delve into the text.

Others more naturally enjoy presentation. The act of preaching itself animates them. They enjoy delivering the goods to God’s people. Great preachers excel at both, and you should cultivate both strengths in your own ministry.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones famously observed that preaching is “the highest, the greatest, and the most glorious calling to which one can ever be called.”[3] In fact, it is too high and too glorious of a calling for just anyone to preach just anything for just any reason in just any way.

Like any other ability, teaching and preaching God’s Word is an acquired skill. Gifted by the Spirit of God, yes. But practice makes perfect, and it might take quite some time to clarify your gifting to preach. Don’t expect to sound like a veteran preacher your first time in the pulpit. In fact, you may not ever become an accomplished preacher.

Seminaries can grant a degree and churches can hire a pastor, but only God can make a preacher. Preaching is to be done by a man, called of God, who is compelled to herald the Bible with full conviction and faithful interpretation. The Bible details many character expectations of the pastor, but there is only one gift he must have—he must be able to preach and teach the Word of God.

—

[1] C. H. Spurgeon, Autobiography, Volume 1: The Early Years (London: Banner of Truth, 1962), v.

[2] Mark 1:14; Matthew 28:16-20.

[3] Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1972), 9.

Originally published at JasonKAllen.com



The Pastor’s Calling

By / Feb 13

1 Timothy 3:1 “The saying is trustworthy: if anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.”

God has used few men more in my life than “The Doctor,” Martyn Lloyd-Jones. If you’re not familiar with MLJ let me encourage you to familiarize yourself with him. He was a pastor who loved the Bible and believed in preaching. I have been shaped by him in countless ways. But, as anyone who is familiar with the Doctor knows, Lloyd-Jones could be quite opinionated. Some would say he was too opinionated. However, because of his love for the Word and his grit, his rare disagreements don’t bother me much. It does not distract me because I am driven to the Word to find answers. Let me explain.

Recently, as I was re-reading his book Preaching and Preachers, I came across one of his famous quotes on the call of preaching. He says “The work of preaching is the highest and greatest and more glorious calling with which anyone can ever be called.”  The first time I read that quote I loved it! In a world that devalues preaching, here was a prophetic voice calling us back to the Biblical priority. As I reread that sentence, I started to disagree with him a bit. The calling to preach is a great calling. For a man to be qualified to preach it requires that he be a certain kind of man. The preacher has a few prerequisite callings. As best as I can tell, God calls the pastor to great and noble callings that are higher and greater and more glorious than the work of preaching.

I have four callings that come before my calling to preach. God clearly says that the task of pastoring is noble. It would be right, then, for us to assign greater nobility to the tasks that are prerequisites for that great calling. What are these greater and more noble callings?

1. God has called me to sonship. God saved me when I was a little boy and I have been walking with him ever since. He has been so gracious to me. I never want to lose my first love. Paul calls Timothy a man of God in 1 Tim 6:11 and that is what every pastor must be. Before I am anything else, I am a man who has been saved and sustained by the God of the gospel. My identity must be rooted deep in the truth that I belong to God. Too many pastors have “pastor faith” and not childlike faith. A pastor is a Christian growing in Christlike humility. This is my first and greatest calling!

2. God has called me to the noble task of husbandry. It’s true that not every pastor is married. Most, however, are. Two becoming one flesh is in fact a profound mystery. As Eph. 5:32 says, “And I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” Marriage is a prerequisite calling because it is a demonstration of sort, of the message the qualified pastor preaches. If a pastor cannot love his bride well he will not love Christ’s bride well.

3. God has called me to fatherhood. Being a good father requires that I learn fatherhood from God. It is a great privilege to have God not only as the sovereign God of the universe but as our sovereign Father. The pastor doesn’t learn about God from looking to his own love for his kids. Rather, the pastor learns what good fatherhood is by looking to God the Father. 1 Tim. 3:4 makes it clear, the pastor who fails at home does not get to preach. The fatherhood of God and the fatherhood of our own children are the training ground for becoming a father to the flock.

4. God has called me to friendship. Anyone who aspires to the calling of Christian friendship aspires a noble task. Jesus was a good friend. It was he who said in John 15:13 “Greater loves has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” Almost everyone has met the professional “pastor.” You know the type. He is always around but no one seems to know him. He is really good at helping people build structures but really bad at making friends. It is impossible to “shepherd the flock of God that is among you” (1 Peter 5:2) without being friends with the flock. It is impossible to be held accountable at the heart level by surface-level business associates and elders. Failure at Christian friendship is the failure of pastoral ministry.

After these callings of greater nobility comes the calling of pastor. The pastor must fight the urge to confuse the first calling and the fifth calling. The title “pastor” can easily become the primary calling in which the called man finds his identity. That is a recipe for disaster. What would happen if something were to happen to your vocal chords and you never get to preach again? If your identity is in the right place, you would be fine. Oh yes, being a pastor and preaching the Bible is a high, great, and glorious call. But, it is not the highest, greatest, and glorious call of all.