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The Local Church: What It All Means

Monday, October 14, 2013

The Simple Kingdom: Keeping the Mission Simple...Personally and Corporately

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

The simplicity of the kingdom of God is found in texts like John 17:3 where, in the real "Lord's Prayer" we find Jesus praying these words:

"And this is the way to eternal life - to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth" (NLT).

That makes the mission pretty simple, I'd say. Really simple. If the way to eternal life is simply knowing the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, then I wonder what the Christian life would look like with one thing on the "radar".

The Simple Kingdom Mission in My Personal Life

My personal devotion and worship times (a.k.a. "Quiet Times") would finally have a focus. My mission would simply be to read the Bible with the goal of knowing the Father and the Son. Everything I read would ask these questions:

What am I seeing about the Father in this text? What is He like? What does He do to show what He is like? (The "stuff" God the Father does is always done in order to reveal Who He really is to people.)
What is the Father telling me about Himself? He is talking to me, after all. If I'm reading about the Father in the Old Testament, I'll want to see Him in person in the New Testament, since Jesus told me that He was essentially just like the Father. If I'm reading about the Father in the New Testament, I'll want to see what all He did in the Old Testament to lead up to what I'm reading in the New.
What am I seeing about Jesus Christ in this text? What is He like? What does He do to show what He is like? (The "stuff" God the Son does is always done in order to reveal Who the Father really is to people.)
What is Jesus telling me about Himself? His Spirit is talking to me, after all.
What does the Bible text I'm reading say about His character? That's what the name YHWH means..."I AM"...it is a name that reveals His character through His actions and behavior.
What does the Bible text I'm reading say about His promises? He is a promise-making and promise-keeping God, in almost every single book of the Bible. Everything I read there is either about a promise He is about to make, or else about how He is keeping a promise He has already made. It really is that simple...especially in the Old Testament.

And how about my prayer life? If my mission is simply to pray with the goal of knowing the Father and the Son, then my prayer life would have to emphasize some of these elements:

Asking the Holy Spirit to fill me...the Spirit of Christ...the Spirit of the Father...so that I can have the eyes of my heart opened and my mind enlightened, in order to make it possible for me to know the Father and the Son.
Praying the "Lord's Prayer"...the one in Matthew 6 and Luke 11. In that prayer Jesus teaches us who the Father is by showing us what He wants to give us: Himself, His kingdom, His will, His provisions, and His protection. That's pretty simple, eh?
Praying for the Father to talk to me...to tell me I am His own adopted child...to tell me how much He loves me.
Praying for the Son to talk to me...to tell me I am His brother...to tell me how much He loved and loves me.
Singing to the Father and Son, through the filling of His Spirit...even asking Him to give me new and fresh songs so my heart has some release of all the grace He's pouring inside of me.
Speaking in tongues, through the filling of the Spirit...realizing that my native tongue sometimes just isn't enough to praise and worship the Father and the Son.

The Simple Kingdom Mission in my Corporate Life

Knowing the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, makes my mission pretty simple, doesn't it? Not only does it simplify my personal mission (Know God!), but also my corporate mission, as a part of a local church. If the personal mission of knowing the Father and the Son moves to the corporate level, then a bunch of persons who are knowing the Father and the Son come together to advance the same mission, but on a grander scale. What does that look like?

Unity.

Jesus said in the last half of the same prayer,

"I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one - as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me...I am in them, and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me" (John 17:20-23, NLT).

Pursuing a personal mission of knowing the Father and the Son leads a group of persons...all of whom have the same mission...all of whom are pursuing that same mission...to gather together and carry out that mission on a much grander scale...a global-sized scale. Simply knowing the Father and the Son leads a group of persons like this to love each other so fervently that the world will be convinced of what these people believe in.

The simple kingdom is advanced along the rails of personal worship and corporate worship...knowing the Father and the Son personally (and in ever-increasing fashion), as well as knowing the Father and the Son corporately (again, in ever-increasing fashion). If we pursue the simple mission on our own, using the Word of God and communing with God, then there is no stopping that group of people when they gather together and decide on doing something for the kingdom.

church

The Gospel on Homosexuality: How Do We Call It Sin and Still Embrace the Sinner?

Thursday, February 10, 2011

The question asked in the title is the most compelling question today. It comes to mind after watching the portion of interview which Piers Morgan has done with Joel Osteen. Morgan was correct to pick up in a change of tone in Osteen, based on previous interviews with Larry King. For all the issues I may have with this man's ministry, I was deeply thankful to God for his stance on the issue, because it was done with love, gentleness, boldness, and courage.

This, in my opinion, is THE issue the church is going to have to tackle in this generation. I'm not talking about the church tackling whether or not homosexuality is a sin. The Bible is very clear on that. What I am talking about is how the church will do the following when it comes to homosexuality.

1. Intelligently explain the historicity, integrity, reliability, and "trajectory" of the Bible.

The issue of homosexuality, like many issues, is rooted in the Bible. The Bible is a collection of writings which some people reject and others receive. The difference between those who reject and those who receive is faith. Those who have faith believe that it is the Word of God and not just the word of man. Those who don't have faith believe it is just the word of man. As such, they do not view it as an "inspired" collection of writings that were given by God. Rather, they view the collection of writings with a sort of "trajectory theology" much akin to what someone like Brian Mclaren does with the subject.

In Mclaren's view, because the Bible is a book about truth that has been revealed about God progressively and poetically, then whatever it says about a subject cannot necessarily be the final word on it. If, for example, slavery is spoken of in the OT as just a matter of fact, and then it spoken of in the NT as the same, but later on history we see humanity coming to condemn it and even outlaw it, then in some sense there must be a "trajectory" of the issue from ancient times to modern times. Women's rights are seen in this "trajectory". And homosexuality is lumped in with it as well. Just because something is assumed to exist, right or wrong, in the Bible doesn't mean it should stay the same today, according to this line of thought.

So the first thing ordinary, average, run-of-the-mill, everyday Christians must address is their own view of the Bible, its historicity, accuracy, integrity, reliability, and "trajectory." And based on Jay Lenno's street walks and his interviews with people about the Bible, it's hard to feel inspired confidence about the goal here. To miss this key issue is to be a group of Christians who are arguing in a vacuum, which so many have tended toward over the last one hundred years in the church. (This was a side-effect of the fundamentalism movement in the 1920's onward.) And when they argue in vacuum, nobody is listening. If we want homosexuals to listen to what we have to say about the issue, then we must at least speak intelligently about it, be able to interact with the scientific issues and presuppositions, as well as the issues surrounding the Bible and what it has to say. Otherwise, we are irrelevant to the very people we say we want to win to Jesus. The message we are trying to take, not just to them, but to the whole world, is a message rooted in history. If I can't trust the history, then how can I trust the message it carries. It all goes together, you see.

2. Walk the razor's edge of calling it a sin while loving the sinner.

The second thing Christians must tackle is their own comfort zone with homosexuality. It does tend to be treated as the worst of the worst sins on earth. To most, it is unnatural, abnormal, strange, backwards, and simply feels upside down when it comes to the nature of sex. It probably feels just as unnatural, abnormal, strange, backwards and upside down to a homosexual however, when it comes to their view of heterosexuality. So what are we to do, then? Embrace their view?

Of course not. But we are to embrace them. That's the essence of the gospel. Jesus was a friend of sinners. If we believe homosexuality is a sin, then homosexuals are sinners. And Jesus was a friend of sinners. Therefore, Jesus was (and is) a friend of homosexuals. Period. Just because we call it a sin doesn't mean we have to distance ourselves from the sinner. This is precisely where the rubber meets the road in following King Jesus. He wasn't "grossed out" by people's sin.

He saw through the sin and loved the person, effectively loving them out of their sin. That's why sinners followed Him. They felt that He had a genuine love for them. He wasn't fake. He wasn't trying to squeeze charitable donations out of them, or use them as poster-children for His crusade or ministry. They were people, made in the image of God, who needed to have that image of God restored, just like every other single person on planet earth. HE was that restoration. He brought that ability to be restored to friendship with God and to have that image of God restored inside of them. That's what He came to do. That's what the pronouncement of "good news" is all about.

So when it comes to homosexuals, will Christians ignore the awkwardness they feel until they overcome it? It must be overcome in order to bring them close enough into our lives that they feel and experience Jesus' love for them through us. Keeping them at arm's length and simply praying for them just isn't enough. We must be a friend of homosexuals, just like Jesus. If Christians are not able to overcome their personal feelings and issues about this, they will never be successful at doing what they say they want to do, which is to win homosexuals to Jesus...to see the image of God fully restored in them.

So there's the razor's edge Christians must figure out and learn to walk. I call it a razor's edge because walking this way will absolutely shred our feet to bloody ribbons. But deciding not to is taking an easy path of either rejecting them completely and just writing them off and out of our lives (which is heinous in God's eyes), or it is taking the opposite easy path of just embracing them completely so that we are just writing off their sin (which is equally heinous in God's eyes). We must learn how, as the old adage goes, to "love the sinner and hate the sin" and stop letting everyone else define what it means to "judge" homosexuals.

God has already judged homosexuality. He did it at the cross. He put the punishment for sin upon His Son, Jesus. What this effectively means then, is that we can love the sinner and hate the sin. We can look past their sin long enough to see a human being, made in the image of God, who has all the same inner needs and desires that we have: to be loved, to be respected, to be welcomed, to be needed, etc. The only real difference between two people is where they go looking for the fulfillment of those inner needs. Homosexuals have chosen to turn to companionship and sexual fulfillment with the same gender as a way of meeting that need. But what if Christians showed them Someone Else who could fulfill that need in a much deeper and more significant way than they experience with a same-sex partner?

3. Properly define what it means to "judge" someone else.

The final issue I see that Christians must resolve in this generation is that of what it means to "judge." Piers Morgan took Osteen to task about "judging." And the mistake many Christians make is allowing others to define it, because essentially they end up wrongly defining it. We allow those who are not Christians to define the words and concepts we use, which effectively ties our hands in talking through the issue. We have to stop allowing this to happen. It's not fair, and those who do that to us probably don't even realize they are doing it.

So what does it mean to "judge" someone else? Judging has a variety of definitions. It can simply mean to distinguish between things. Or it can mean to distinguish between things and make a decision about one of them. So in these connotations the idea is that of decision-making or discerning. The definitions go to the other end of the spectrum and can refer to condemning someone. Here's what Dictionary.com had to say.

– verb (used with object)

6. to pass legal judgment on; pass sentence on (a person): The court judgedhim guilty.

7. to hear evidence or legal arguments in (a case) in order to pass judgment; adjudicate; try: The Supreme Court is judging that case.

8. to form a judgment or opinion of; decide upon critically: You can't judge abook by its cover.

9. to decide or settle authoritatively; adjudge: The censor judged the bookobscene and forbade its sale.

10. to infer, think, or hold as an opinion; conclude about or assess: He judgedher to be correct.

11. to make a careful guess about; estimate: We judged the distance to beabout four miles.

12. (of the ancient Hebrew judges) to govern.

So when someone like Piers Morgan, or someone else who disagrees with us about homosexuality, challenges us with the notion that we are judging, we have to ask them to pick a definition. If you give them the list, what they'll immediately notice, more than likely, is that the notion or concept or idea of judging they have in mind, isn't really in the list of definitions at all, is it? How interesting. What they mean by judging is that I am somehow looking down my nose upon the poor, measly worm of a soul and am concluding that they are pitiable beings who should be condemned to execution under the wrath of a mean, old, angry God. Isn't that what they really mean when they say Christians are "judging" homosexuals?

I don't mean that. And neither did Jesus, necessarily. I do judge homosexuality and homosexuals according to one or two of the dictionary definitions. I do "form a judgment or opinion of" the issue, just like homosexuals themselves have done. I am allowed to do that as a human being, just as they are. I do "decide upon critically" based upon critical data, of which I include Scripture.

I do not however "decide or settle authoritatively" and effectively censor or forbid something. Who am I to do that? I am just a human being. That's God's territory and responsibility. The greatest and only view of God we have is Jesus Christ, the perfect image of God. And when we read of Jesus in the gospels we see a man who loved sinners, who was their friend, who came to seek them out and save them, who came to experience what they did and die as they did in order to rescue them from suffering and pain. We see a Jesus who hung out with prostitutes, terrorists, tax-collectors, and traitors. We see a Jesus who healed entire villages from sickness and demonic oppression. He was a rescuer, and not a judge. And even as God in the flesh, He did "decide or settle authoritatively" on what sin was, even telling people to never do it again. But all the while there was a tone of love and gentleness and patience and kindness that never carried a hint of "judgmentalism."

Conclusion

These are the three big issues I believe Christians must deal with in this next generation. If they do not, then by next generation, when homosexuality is as normal in society as women's rights and anti-slavery (and it will happen just as sure as the sun will come up tomorrow morning), Christians will have become irrelevant. Their voice will die out because they no longer have something substantive to say about the Bible, about the gospel, and about decision-making. If they cling to their comfort zones and disconnected faith, they will be reduced to little groups of irrelevant people who are forced to withdraw from society because they don't know how to interact with it. They will be reduced to "holy huddles" with "us four and no more".

The Bible gives us a picture of a victorious church, one that is extremely relevant to society, who interacts with it not in intellect and academia, but in power and love. The unarguable, miraculous power of God in signs and wonders and changed lives, as well as a life of unconditional love for every single sinner on earth, will outmatch the intellectual and academic philosophies and arguments about "sin" every single moment of time for the rest of history. Let us press into that, and make conscientious, intentional, purposeful decisions to leave our awkwardness and issues behind so that we can be about the mission Jesus put us on.

church

Is the Church a Hobby for Christians and a Sandbox for Pastors? Part 2

Friday, July 23, 2010

Leading churches for the last twenty years has show me one other thing for sure: it's easy for church members, attendees, laypeople, etc. to treat the church like it's their hobby. See if any of this describes your current level of involvement, thought process, or feelings about your local church.

You think it's AWESOME! You absolutely love it. But...when push comes to shove...life gets busy...you get tired...and...slowly... you...begin to...not... attend on Sundays, attend small groups, give financially, have people in your home, evangelize, etc. Or, that sale is on at your favorite shop, the next awesome movie is out at the theater, and you rush to spend your money on it, only to feel weird on Sunday morning when it's time to worship the Lord in giving.

Your church is okay. You wish there were a better one to attend if you knew of one. So you attend every Sunday because you know it's the right thing to do. Or you attend every now and then. When there's a special meeting, workshop or seminar that interests you, you make sure to attend because it really peaks your interest and seems helpful.

The children's ministry has a schedule with your name on it, and you know your Sunday's coming up. You're dreading it. As the Sunday draws nearer, you're frantically thinking of excuses, rationales, and substitutes who can take your place. Strangely though, you really don't want to miss praise and worship because you really meet with God then.

You're playing on the praise and worship band. But school's been really, REALLY tough recently. And perhaps your job is demanding more hours on top of school work. So to make life easier, you just drop from the band and take an extended leave of absence. After all, you feel like you just need some personal time to worship God among your friends on Sunday mornings, and the break would be nice.

Prayer meeting is on Wednesday nights. The Wednesday night supper is great. But prayer is boring. So you take extended time around the Wednesday night supper table to hang with friends and chat, skip prayer time, but make sure you stay around for choir practice afterward, because you really enjoy that.

Think of any other examples? Here's the point in summary:

when you pick and choose what you will participate in
within the life of your local church family,
your local church has become a hobby,
and the people / ministries in it the toys you play with.

When it all comes down to it, you really only do what you really want to do in your local church. And if you don't like it, or if it doesn't appeal to you, you simply decide not to attend, not to give, not to participate, and not to serve. Your church is your hobby.

There's no intention to make anyone feel guilty here. If you're one of Christ's you're forgiven of this attitude and behavior towards His wife. That's what the church is. His bride. And you're deciding to take or leave whatever you want from His bride. And Jesus still loves you and forgives you. And He calls you now to take up your cross, deny yourself, and follow Him.

Taking up your cross is taking up your execution instrument. You are deciding to die when you decide to follow Jesus. No turning back, as the old hymn says. This necessarily flows into denying yourself. The cross as an execution instrument necessarily means dying to yourself and dying for others. Saying NO to yourself, is saying YES to others. That's what the cross was about for Jesus. And He didn't turn back either. All of this flows into following Jesus, Who showed you now to do it. Nobody has any greater love than this: when you lay down your life for your friends.

The church is not a building. It's people. It's your friends in Christ. And when you take or leave whatever you want or don't want from the local church, you're essentially laying down your friends for your hobby. They no longer become the focus of your life. What YOU want to do becomes that focus. And if what you don't want to do happens to be giving or serving that weekend with your fellow believers...or if it happens to be housing a homeless person for a couple of weeks until they get a job and get back on their feet...or if it happens to be using your entertainment money that month to buy groceries for a family in need...then you are saying YES to yourself and NO to your friends. That's exactly opposite of what Jesus said is involved in following Him.

When the church turns from hobby to lifestyle you will never experience more joy and satisfaction and happiness and peace and freedom. When people become the focus of your existence instead of your own desires and felt needs, you will find what you've truly been looking for the whole time: fulfillment. You see, God has uniquely designed the local church so that it is the perfect marriage of two elements: your desire to be fulfilled, and the need of other people to be loved. When either of these is left out, the church becomes just a hobby...something you do depending on when the whim hits you.

Take up your cross. Say NO to yourself and yes to others. Follow Jesus by loving His bride with 100% of your life. He died for His bride. He didn't die so we could enjoy a hobby. He died to bring us ultimate and eternal fulfillment in His love...a love which is given to us to give to others, and never to be diverted to toys. People are not play things. They are persons Jesus died for and wants to conform to His image through YOUR participation in serving and sacrificing and encouraging and exhorting and counseling and comforting.

Love one another with all your heart, soul, mind and strength...as you would want to be loved...and the local church will no longer be a hobby.

character

What is the Character of a Gospel-Driven Leader? Part Twelve

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

11. The Local Church Leader Will be a Living-Color Example of Self-Discipline.

a. The local church leader should not be known as a drunkard. Also occurring in Titus 1:7, this same idea is repeated for deacons also. The fact that this qualification appears for both elders and deacons in 1 Timothy 3, and then again in Titus 1:7, as well as in Ephesians 5:18, indicates that drunkenness was a serious problem in the Ephesian church. And what’s even weirder is that the false teachers were not only known for their drinking habits, but were ironically ascetics when it came to food (1 Tim. 4:3). So while being able to hold your liquor was a qualification for being a false teacher, evidently, being able to control yourself with respect to how much you drink in the first place is a qualification for being a local church leader.

In Scripture, drinking is pictured as a good thing (Prov. 31:4-7). In other places it is also viewed as an evil (Prov. 20:1; 21:17; Isa. 5:12; Amos 2:8; 4:1). Drunkenness, though, is always viewed as evi12; Jer. 13:13; 25:17; Ezek. 23:33; Hos. 4:11, 18; Amos 6:6; Compare Matthew 11:19 to Luke 7:34; and Matthew 24:49 with Luke 12:45; Luke 21:34; Acts 2:15; Romans 13:13; 1 Cor. 6:10; 11:21; Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:18; 1 Thess. 5:7; 1 Pet. 4:3). Isaiah even mocks people whose identity lies in holding their liquor. “Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink” (5:22). And if Christians are commanded by Paul in 1 Corinthians 5:11 to not even associate with someone who claims to be a Christian but who is a drunkard, how much more should a local church leader exemplify this command, as well as possess a lifestyle of integrity with regard to alcoholic beverages.

As a whole, the Baptist denomination has come to believe that total abstinence is what the Bible requires. While it is true that the OT purposefully pictures drinking sometimes as a good thing, the NT doesn’t actively portray it as that in terms of teaching. What we do see, however, is a neutral or cultural-contextual use. For example, there’s the wedding at Cana, where Jesus’ first miracle was turning water into wine. Then there’s the parable of the wineskins in Mark 2:22. Jesus and the disciples partook of wine at the Last Supper in Mark 14:23-25. And finally, the Messianic banquet is portrayed as serving wine for us in Luke 22:29-30.

What we must conclude then is that alcoholic beverages are an issue of conscience for the local church leader. He may choose to totally abstain from it because of the abuses of it in their context or community, as perhaps Timothy did (which seems why Paul had to command Timothy to take wine as medicine for his stomach ailment in 1 Tim. 5:3). Or he may choose to partake in it as part of identifying with the culture in order to minister to it and within it (as did Jesus at the wedding of Cana, as well as at the Lord’s Supper). Regardless, it is clear that drunkenness is not an acceptable thing in any way, shape or form. Local church leaders at Church in the Boro, a university city where the college has shaped Statesboro’s reputation as “a drinking town”, may choose to totally abstain or partake. Either view and practice is biblical and acceptable. But an immediate disqualifying event in a local church leader’s life, especially in our town, is drunkenness.

b. The local church leader should not be known as a violent man, but instead as a gentle one. This qualification immediately follows drunkenness because they usually go together. John Calvin noted this when he wrote about the previous disqualifying character trait,

“It is not just unseemly for pastors to drink excessively, as this usually results in worse things such as quarrels, stupid arguments, sexual immorality, and other situations we cannot mention. From the contrast that follows, Paul indicates that he has more than just drunkenness in mind. Just as he compares a violent person with a person who does not fight, and man who craves for money with a man who is not covetous, so he compares ‘the excessive drinker’ with the person who is kind and gentle. Chrysostom correctly says that a man given to drink and violence should be ejected from being bishops” (1 & 2 Timothy and Titus, pp. 55-56).

The Greek wording here the phrase, me plekten, which is literally, “not violent.” Again, as with other qualifications in 1 Timothy 3, this one appears in Titus 1:7. Commentators and scholars are not sure whether this word goes with the previous word, or with the word that follows. In other words, the question is whether or not the violence warned against here is joined with the drunkard, or is to be introduced ahead of the contrasting qualification of gentleness. If it goes with the previous word, then drunkenness and brawling are joined together, as if to show that excessive drinking usually leads to fist fighting. The Greek word, plekten, literally means to beat with a fist, so this view seems to fit well with the context. A local church leader cannot be a man who drinks and beats his wife, his children, or other people.

However, perhaps the word is to be taken figuratively, as if to beat somebody with words. This would picture a man who lashes out with his words, who slanders somebody, who outrageously reproaches them, or who wounds them with harmful statements. This would disqualify someone who gets angry and cusses somebody out, or threatens them with hurting words.

It would seem fitting, however, that Paul may intend both. And along with other commentators, I tend to think that the military profession may be in view here, which is all too well-known for commanding officers and sergeants physically hitting those under their command, along with the usual demeaning, screaming, yelling, threatening, repulsive language. John Calvin agrees.

“I believe Paul’s rebuke here is a general one, aimed at the kind of violence common among soldiers, but totally out of place in any of Christ’s servants. Everyone knows how ridiculous it is to be quicker to hit someone or draw a sword on someone than to settle people’s quarrels through exercising the right kind of authority. So violence here refers to men who give out threats and act in a warlike way” (Calvin, p. 56).

Another translation for the Greek word, plekten, is pugnacious. And this definitely describes some military commanders. They respond to something they don’t like with punches and punchlines, with striking and swearing. But,

“A leader in the church must not be one who reacts to difficulty with physical violence. He must not settle disputes with blows. He must react to situations calmly, coolly, and gently (cf. 2 Tim. 2:24-25)” (John MacArthur, 1 Timothy, p. 111).

I can relate to this all too well. There is within my mind many times this martial arts hero, like Jet Li or Jackie Chan, who goes Ju Jitsu on somebody who threatens me. I recall last year going to Savannah with my family. An older gentleman and his friend pulled right out in front of me almost causing an accident. We were driving 55 mph on highway 67 toward I-16 at the time. Because of the speed with which we were going when he pulled out, we had to immediately pull to the left to avoid hitting him, but we came very close to doing that, with the right side of our vehicle, almost hitting the left side of theirs.

The older man driving began yelling and flipping me off, waving furiously at me with his middle finger. He drove fast enough to get right up on my bumper and I could see him in my rear view mirror still yelling and flipping me off. So to avoid trouble, I pulled off to Clyde’s gas station there on the left just before getting to I-16. Well, he decided to pull off with me. That wasn’t smart.

He pulled up next to me and got out of his car and walked over to my truck. I rolled my window down just a tad so I could talk to him. He was so angry I was afraid he might try to hurt me or something. He continued to yell and scream and swear and cuss me out. I saw he was an older gentleman, perhaps just above 50, though he could have been older. He was about 6’3 and probably weighing in at about 250-275 lbs. He was wearing denim overalls with a white long sleeve silk shirt, sporting a white mustache, and silver hair.

I rolled my window down a bit more and he put his finger right in my face, less than an inch away. I responded to his swearing that he was the one who pulled out in front of me, and could have killed my children. To that he responded that, “I don’t give a s - - - about what g- - d - - - m- - - - - - f - - - - - - you got ridin’ with you!” That was it. My blood pressure shot up to near death, I’m sure. I instantly was reminded by the Spirit of 2 Timothy 2:24 and kept repeating it to myself in my mind. “The servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome….The servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome…”

I asked the man to stop swearing in front of my wife and family, and he did it even more. I reached for my seatbelt, unbuckled it, and reached for my door handle. My wife could see my red-soon-to-be-purple face and she knew what that meant and grabbed my arm, and said, “Honey, don’t you get out of this car.” The man saw my actions, so he took a few steps back, unbuttoned his white silk shirt, and began rolling up the sleeves, choosing instead to just take the shirt off altogether, revealing the straps on his denim overalls, and white t-shirt. He then smiled and waved me over, saying, “Come on, you young punk-ass. Come on over and I’ll teach you a lesson.”

I just started laughing my head off, as I recall. It was so fascinating to me that a 250-275 lb senior citizen pulled in front of me and then wanted to fight me…in the parking lot of a gas station. It was clear, at least in my mind, that if I would have stepped out of my truck and took off my shirt, that I would have “gone Jackie Chan on him” and put the old man in the hospital, along with his redneck friend just sitting there in the car watching the whole ordeal. I don’t play. I quit school ‘cause they had recess.

By God’s grace, I spotted an umarked police car filling up. So after I got out, the old man was waving with both hands this time, welcoming me into his circle of pain. I darted over toward the cop, told him what was going on, only to be told that unless there were blows exchanged, he could do nothing. So in my mind, I’m thinking…”Sweet! I can get this old man arrested for being stupid and mean…but I gotta let him hit me first…and then I can knock his dentures out of his head…and then he’ll get in trouble for starting a fight and get arrested for assaulting me.” But by another stroke of God’s grace to me, I walked back to my truck…and he was gone. He had seen the cop, got scared, got back in his car, and pulled up to the gas pump and started filling up.

Long story short, I almost came to blows with an old man who was lashing out at me and my family for something stupid that he did to me! But Jesus says not to return evil for evil. Servants of the Lord, and especially local church leaders, don’t get in fistfights just because someone made them mad or got them angry. They don’t respond with fists of fury, with threats, and with gang violence. They respond with grace. They turn the other cheek to the same person who just punched the first cheek. They love their enemies and pray for those who hurt them. That’s how the local church leader exemplifies the life and mind of Jesus Christ, the Chief Shepherd.

When we look at the Savior we see a gentle and meek Savior. He told us in Matthew 11:28-29 that He’s meek and lowly in heart. Meekness is not weakness, but ironically it’s just the opposite. It’s power under control. Jesus had the power to call down thousands upon thousands of angels on those who arrested Him that night while He was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. But He didn’t. And He had the power to do the same while He was being murdered upon the cross. But He didn’t. He stayed there.

That’s because GOD’S power is manifested through weakness, through gentleness. Man’s power is manifested in fistfighting, violence, guns, swords, knives, etc. But that only leads to death and pain. The Christian, however, is interested in healing and life. So he does nothing to someone else that causes the very thing he’s trying to stop. He fights violence with gentleness, activism with passivism. He realizes that the very power and glory of God Almighty was reflected on the cross when Jesus was being murdered. And the local church leader seeks to exemplify the same thing to those who would do the same thing to him. Gentleness is the only way of the Savior. And it’s the only way of the local church leader.

c. The local church leader should not be known as a contentious man, who loves to fight whether it’s a verbal argument or a fist fight. The Greek word here is, amachos, which is very strong term in the Greek meaning to actively quarrel and bicker, and sometimes physical combat (Mounce, The Pastoral Epistles, p. 176). This same word is used in James 4 where the pastor of that local church is teaching his people about the internal fighting that is caused by a person wanting something so very passionately, but not getting it (4:1-2).

This one feature more characterizes false teachers and opponents in the local church than anything else. You can usually identify a guy who is not qualified to lead a local church, but thinks he is by the fact that he argues and picks verbal fights with people He’s usually the philosopher who’s got it all figured out, and who’s got a counter-argument for everything that comes out of your mouth. He fancies himself a contender for the truth, but he actually destroys it by the way he talks and argues and quarrels with people. He’s usually the guy whose got some theological or personal axe to grind with someone…usually the guy leading the church. And so the contentious man creates disunity and disharmony in the local church, as he tries to argue with leadership and with others who support the leadership, thereby hoping to gather another group around him in the name of truth and Scripture and holiness. If a guy like this ever gets on our leadership team, the rest of us will kick him off so fast he won’t know what hit him. We simply cannot put up with a man like this because he threatens the very thing he is biblical mandated to create and foster in the local church, and that’s unity.

Paul spends a good deal of time helping Timothy discover what this looks like within the context of the Ephesian church. We see that Timothy may not have been exemplifying this the character trait of being peaceable because Paul had to write a second time to Timothy and in it spent a good amount of space dealing with the issue.

“Remind people of these things and solemnly charge them before the Lord not to wrangle over words. This is of no benefit; it just brings ruin on those who listen. Make every effort to present yourself before God as a proven worker who does not need to be ashamed, teaching the message of truth accurately. But avoid profane chatter, because those occupied with it will stray further and further into ungodliness, and their message will spread its infection like gangrene…But reject foolish and ignorant controversies, because you know they breed infighting. And the Lord’s slave must not engage in heated disputes, but be kind toward all, an apt teacher, patient, correcting opponents with gentleness” (2 Tim. 2:14-17, 23-25, The NET Bible).

This is perhaps the single hardest lesson for a young local church leader to learn. I can attest that this has been perhaps the single greatest challenge for me as a young man. There is a great temptation to feel the cause of truth so great that I end up actually arguing against it by the very way I am trying to argue for it! It is so easy to get entangled in debates, heated arguments, quarreling over things that are really neither here nor there. It’s all pointless. And the one who realizes that first wins, and exhibits the character needed to lead a local church.

I recall hearing a story many years ago about a public debate being held between a Christian and a Hindu. I can’t recall where I heard it, but it made a deep impact on my heart at the time. For I was involved in some of the darkest years of my entire life with a family member who would not repent. Time after time I had been entangled in conversations that led to angry arguments from those I was trying to convince to repent. Those were some of the saddest years in my life.

But the story I recalled gave me great hope within about my own attitude toward the situation. While the Christian and Hindu were debating, thousands were watching and listening. Afterwards, one man asked another man who he thought won the debate. His answer was telling. He said, “I knew who won the debate when the other side was the first to get angry.” How true that is of Christians so many times. WE are often the first to become angry, contentious, and quarrelsome when something doesn’t go our way, when we’re offended or opposed or threatened. Yet it must not be so for the man who wants to lead a local church. He must reflect Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

d. The local church leader should not be known as a man who loves money. The Greek word here is, aphilapguron, which literally is translated, “not a lover of money.” The same qualification is repeated for deacons in 3:8, which means that, like drunkenness, this was a problem in the Ephesian church. And it has never been otherwise, for drunkenness and greed have always gone together. Sex, money, and power have been the triad of trouble since the beginning of time, and the local church is a perfect opportunity for the devil and his demons to send some of their servants there for some destructive fun.

One of the most significant and obvious ways that the false teachers of Ephesus were identifiable was that they taught for money, and not for the sake of the gospel. When you teach for the biblical gospel, enough of it rubs off on you to convince you that charging to preach and teach it is absolutely asinine. But if you’re a false teacher, then you don’t care whether or not your gospel is biblical, and you therefore don’t care about the financial implications. You have no problem charging people to tell them error. This is of course, simply lying to people. And it involves hypocrisy too, since you’re claiming to be a teacher of the gospel, but you’re teaching things and doing things that are contradictory to the gospel.

Paul was clear to Timothy in chapter 6 about this problem.

“Teach them and exhort them about these things. If someone spreads false teachings and does not agree with sounds words (that is, those of our Lord Jesus Christ) and with the teaching that accords with godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing, but has an unhealthy interest in controversies and verbal disputes. This gives rise to envy, dissension, slanders, evil suspicions, and constant bickering by people corrupted in their minds and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a way of making a profit. Now godliness combined with contentment brings great profit. For we have brought nothing into this world and so we cannot take a single thing out either. But if we have food and shelter, we will be satisfied with that. Those who long to be rich, however, stumble into temptation and a trap and many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all evils. Some people in reaching for it have strayed from the faith and stabbed themselves with many pains” (6:2-10, The NET Bible).

The reason this was so significant for Timothy to get wired into his DNA is that he would be involved in handling the money of the local church. As an overseer, he would be involved in the finances of the congregation, as was the practice since the beginning (Acts 4:34-37). He had to do everything in his power then to ensure that he would not be blamed for any lack of integrity. The only way to do this then, was to avoid any love of money in his heart. This meant living like it. Which in turn meant learning to be content with whatever food and clothing God had provided him. Contentment is the greatest weapon against greed, as well as against any charges of preaching the gospel for greed. Timothy would have a church with many people who were pursuing get-rich-quick schemes, including the use of the gospel. But he was not to succumb to it at all. John Calvin has written some very wise words regarding this problem.

“Lovers of money are covetous people. All covetousness is tainted with the evil characteristic that the apostle touches on here. Juvenal has said, ‘The man who desire to be rich wants to be rich quickly.’ This results in all greedy people giving all their energy to acquiring wealth dishonestly and unlawfully, even if there is little evidence to show this. Paul contrasts contempt for money with this vice, as this is the only way to control it. I say again, a person who will not willingly and patiently bear poverty will inevitably become mean and covetous” (1 & 2 Timothy and Titus, p. 56).

This was the very public and very obvious manner in which Paul lived and exemplified the Christian life to the Ephesian church while he was there for three years planting it. What’s so amazing is that they can hear his testimony, but act so opposite to what they saw. He reminded them,

I know that false teachers, like vicious wolves, will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock. Even some men from your own group will rise up and distort the truth in order to draw a following. Watch out! Remember the three years I was with you—my constant watch and care over you night and day, and my many tears for you…. "I have never coveted anyone's silver or gold or fine clothes. You know that these hands of mine have worked to supply my own needs and even the needs of those who were with me. And I have been a constant example of how you can help those in need by working hard. You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive'" (20:29-31, 34-35, NLT).

If you want to be a local church leader at Church in the Boro, you will be entrusted with handling the finances of the church. If it turns out you are a greedy or covetous person and we missed it before, it will show up when you get your hands on the church’s money. I guarantee it. It always does. The checkbook register is a great reflection of what you think about money as a local church leader. You may have hidden it well at home in your personal finances. But you can’t hide it when you’re dealing with someone else’s. Because then the “gig is up.”

A local church leader must absolutely be completely beyond and above all reproach in this area. It has stained almost as many pastors as sexual immorality has. And my experience has been that where one is occurring, generally the other is as well. If you want to lead here, you must be an example of the counsel we see given to all Christians in Hebrews 13:5.

“Don't love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said,

‘I will never fail you.
I will never abandon you.

So we can say with confidence,

‘The LORD is my helper,
so I will have no fear.
What can mere people do to me?’

“Remember your leaders who taught you the word of God. Think of all the good that has come from their lives, and follow the example of their faith” (13:5-7, NLT).

I was reading through the Didache, not too long ago, trying to understand what the 2nd century Christians would have thought about apostles and the charismatic gifts. I came across a statement that was rather shocking, but also very helpful in determining immediately whether a minister was true or false prophet. There was a saying then that is translated this way:

“Whosoever, therefore, comes and teaches you all these things that have been said before, receive him. But if the teacher himself turns and teaches another doctrine to the destruction of this, hear him not. But if he teaches so as to increase righteousness and the knowledge of the Lord, receive him as the Lord. But concerning the apostles and prophets, act according to the decree of the Gospel. Let every apostle who comes to you be received as the Lord. But he shall not remain more than one day; or two days, if there's a need. But if he remains three days, he is a false prophet. And when the apostle goes away, let him take nothing but bread until he lodges. If he asks for money, he is a false prophet… Therefore from their ways shall the false prophet and the prophet be known” (Didache, Chapter 11).

Summarizing all the negative traits we’ve seen in this section on The Leader’s Self-Control, it becomes obvious that this man is someone who is in constant need and therefore, (hopefully) in constant possession of the fullness of the Holy Spirit. The opposites of these negatives are only a fruit of the Spirit: peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control. Local church leaders must be filled with the Spirit and/or pursuing it at all times, since the future of the mission depends on it. In the end,

“Christian leaders who possessed these outward traits gave evidence that they had inner control and commitment to Christ. Such traits would be mandatory in meeting, opposing, and defeating the rampant, controversial false teaching of Ephesus” (Lea & Griffin, The New American Commentary: 1, 2 Timothy and Titus, p. 111).

character

What is the Character of a Gospel-Driven Leader? Part Eleven

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

10. The Local Church Leader Will Have a Public AND Private Ministry (continued)

b. Paul pairs hospitality in 1 Timothy 3:2 with “apt to teach” which basically means skilled in teaching. The Greek word is didaktikos, and there is only one other place where it occurs. That is in 2 Timothy 2:24 where we find that the Lord’s servant, speaking specifically of the local church leader, must be “skilled in teaching…instructing those who oppose.” There is, however, a second passage in which we not only find a similar qualification to local church leaders, in Paul’s letter to Titus, but also a description of what being skilled in teaching looks like. In Titus 1:9, Paul writes to Titus that church elders must hold firmly to what they were taught, and be able to instruct and refute those who are teaching error. This is very similar in construction and intention to 2 Timothy 2:24.

Some people, I believe, misread this or mistranslate the Greek word to simply mean, “able to teach.” They take this to imply that an elder simply be able to teach, though not necessarily actively engaged in teaching. However, I think this misses the point for two reasons. The first reason is a grammatical one. Able to teach is actually intended to mean “able teacher,” the difference between the two being obvious. The second reason is historical, for the problem going on in Ephesus was false doctrine. So I can hardly imagine Paul telling Timothy to ordain elders who are simply able to teach but who don’t necessarily actively engage in it when they were false teachers running amok. The simple point here is this: if you were a local church leader, you were to be an able teacher, or a skilled teacher….and you were to be doing it.

Now I would point out to you that this is really the only essential difference here between an elder and a deacon in 1 Timothy 3. There is no reference to a deacon being a skilled teacher. This means that being a skilled teacher is what sets the role of elder apart from deacon, giving it more authority. For the elder is teaching Scripture, which is the thing to which the early church was giving itself in devotion to (Acts 2:42). This was the thing, according to Paul’s famous counsel in 2 Timothy 3:16, that was profitable for instructing, reproving, correcting, and instructing in righteousness. It was the only tool, according to verse 17, that could make the man of God thoroughly equipped to do his job in caring for the local church. So the elder’s qualification of being skilled in teaching is what sets him apart in terms of spiritual authority within the congregation.

One thing I do want to point out is the place of this qualification in the flow of the others. I want you to notice several things that jump out at me personally, and I believe they will serve to sort of tie these qualifications together so that you can see the flow Paul probably intended here.

Notice first that consistency or integrity is required of the man who is skilled in teaching. The man who is skilled in teaching is also a man whose home is filled with deeds and actions of love and care for others who cannot care for themselves. His mouth and his home are a lighthouse. He practices what he preaches. As Richard Baxter, my favorite Puritan pastor, has written, “He that means as he speaks, will surely do as he speaks” (The Reformed Pastor, p. 63). There is a consistency between what he says about the gospel and how he lives it out from day to day.

Second, notice the discipline that’s required to be a man who’s skilled in teaching. Again, this qualification comes on the heels of the qualifications we just looked at previously on the local church leader’s discipline. The fact that he’s temperate, or watchful and vigilant as we saw, means that he’s always watching out for doctrinal error that is not consistent with Scripture, because bad believing leads to bad living.

And the fact that he’s prudent, or self-disciplined as we saw, is an absolutely necessary foundation for the local church leader to learn how handle the Word of God to begin with. His discipline in study, in the science and art of interpretation (a.k.a. hermeneutics), in application, in theology, in church history, in historical theology, in the biblical languages, etc. are all areas of knowledge in which he must be skilled if he is to be able to properly instruct in sound doctrine and refute false doctrine, as Paul wrote to Titus (in 1:9). However, even if he knows all that, he is still to be skilled in teaching it all. For, as John Calvin wrote in his commentary on 1 Timothy,

“It is not enough to be well-known as a profound teacher if this is not accompanied with skill in teaching. Some people keep their learning to themselves, through a speech impediment or through lack of mental ability or because they are so out of touch with ordinary people. Such people should…go and do something else. People who govern in the church should be able to teach. Paul does not just mean a facility in speaking, as we know how many people have so much to say but edify no one. Rather Paul is commending knowing how to apply God’s Word so that people listening benefit from this” (The Crossway Classic Commentaries: 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus, p. 55).

Finally, the fact that he’s respectable, or that he’s a man with an orderly and disciplined life as we saw, means that his lifestyle is the bedrock on which rests his skill in handling the Scriptures. A disorderly man, or a man who is not disciplined in his life structure or schedule, cannot become the kind of skilled man a local church needs when it comes to teaching the Scriptures. You simply cannot put in the time necessary to read, study, learn, and prepare to communicate the Word of God, in season and out of season, when it’s welcome and when it’s not (2 Timothy 4:2 ff.) if your lifestyle is chaotic, unorganized, or disorganized.

In other words, the skill the leader is expected to have in handling and teaching the Word is a skill that is congruent with leading an orderly, disciplined, vigilant lifestyle. If you’re a lazy slug, you’ll never be ready to do battle with the forces of darkness in teaching sound doctrine. You won’t know your stuff, and you’ll get your tail kicked by the demons and the people they use to oppose God. You’ll get smashed in discussions, and those you thought were following you will be persuaded by erroneous arguments, your church will have conflict and probably split, and you’ll fail in your primary mission of Ephesians 4:12-14.

“Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won't be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth” (NLT).

In the end, a local church leader will be a man whose doctrine is above reproach. He does not believe in error, though he may be guilty of teaching things that lead people into error, as Paul was in his day. Paul taught the doctrine of scandalous grace, for example. But even though it was a true doctrine, some people misinterpreted it and so they were led into licentiousness, or continuing to sin so that grace may abound, as he clearly wrote against in Romans 6. As a result, many Jewish false teachers used that against him. But this didn’t make Paul a false teacher. Just because somebody takes the truth that you teach and misapplies it, doesn’t mean you’re not a skilled teacher.

The point I’m making here, however, is that if you are skilled in studying the Word, you will also need to be skilled enough in communicating it so that no part of the truth is left out. Again, Paul is a model here, from what we read of in his farewell speech to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20.

"I never shrank back from telling you what you needed to hear, either publicly or in your homes. I have had one message for Jews and Greeks alike—the necessity of repenting from sin and turning to God, and of having faith in our Lord Jesus… I declare today that I have been faithful. If anyone suffers eternal death, it's not my fault, for I didn't shrink from declaring all that God wants you to know… I know that false teachers, like vicious wolves, will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock. Even some men from your own group will rise up and distort the truth in order to draw a following. Watch out! Remember the three years I was with you—my constant watch and care over you night and day, and my many tears for you” (Acts 20:20, 21, 25-27, 29, 30, NLT).

This is the model of a man qualified in character and speech to teach the Word of God as a local church leader. I’ll close this second set of qualifications in 1 Timothy with the word of John Calvin again, who believed that, “Teaching cannot be separated from a man any more than a man can be separated from his soul” (ibid).

character

What is the Character of a Gospel-Driven Leader? Part Ten

Monday, May 10, 2010

10. The Local Church Leader Will Have a Private AND Public Ministry.

After having been in church leadership for over twenty years now, I’ve personally encountered so many examples of young men, and even older men, who desire to enter into a vocational, full-time ministry of the Word if for no other reason than it fulfills their desire to want to stand up in front of people and talk. Proverbs teaches that fools delight in airing their own opinions, and in pulpits around the world there seems to be no shortage of men (and women) who desire to teach and preach their own opinions to people. There’s no place for men like this in leadership positions of a local church. The role and responsibilities are for those who are above reproach with regard to their desires.

During the same twenty plus years, there has been one distinguishing feature, however, by which to tell whether or not a man’s desire to lead a local church is in fact above reproach. That feature is his home and what he does with it. For many local church leaders, the home is a place to hide away from the demands and pressures of a needy congregation, not to mention a needy and dying world. The man who got into local church ministry because he was lazy and because he likes to be heard airing his own opinions, is also generally the man who uses his home as a cave to hide from other people.

But the man who desires to use his home as a lighthouse for the hurting and needy, is generally the man whose desire to teach and preach is genuine, authentic, and filled with the sort of compassion that is necessary when leading any group of people. In other words, when you see a local church leader loves the public ministry of the word, you can generally know that his motives for so doing are pure when you see a private ministry of the home. I don’t know for sure whether or not this is what Paul intended to convey when pairing these two concepts together. But the application that comes from pairing them together is a needful one to communicate to a local church who wants to know what kind of man should be leading a local church. I’ll unfold each of these one at a time with a closer look.

a. Hospitality has the root word “hospital,” which is a building that houses and cares for urgently sick people. The concept of a hospital, as well as a hospice, developed from the biblical concept of hospitality.

However, this word has been radically redefined in our culture today. It has largely come to refer to simply having people over to your house to eat or hang out. The Greek word is philoxenos, and it is a compound word joined by two concepts.

The first is philos, and it’s pretty obvious what that means: to be friendly toward, to love. It is one of the two kinds of love we see in the Bible: agapao or agape, phileo or philo. The third type of love in the Greek language is eros, which is sexual love. We don’t see that in the Bible. Philos is the word for “brotherly love,” and from it we get names like Philadelphia, which means the city of brotherly love.

The other concept built into the compound Greek word philoxenos, is the word xenos, meaning stranger, foreigner, alien, immigrant, a person we don’t know or have not heard of before.

Joined together, this word means to be fond of strangers, to be a friend to foreigners or people we don’t know. And what a change this is from the way we have come to redefine it and understand it today! This is quite a task, isn’t it? To be fond of people you don’t even know? Yet, “this was a trait highly esteemed by both the early church…and ancient society” (Mounce, The Pastoral Epistles, p. 173). Paul uses this qualification for a local church leader not only here with Timothy, but also with Titus at his church in Crete (1:8).

Now I do want to clear up an understanding of the first century meaning of the word. When I say “strangers”, generally speaking it was Christian or believing strangers that are being referred to here. In that day and time, when the mission was in full force, both in Jesus’ day and in the early church, travelling was all done by foot. And though there were inns and motels, and that sort of thing, even those were in homes, sort of like our bed and breakfast inns today. And in many of those house-inns, brothels and other notorious businesses were being operated out of the homes. So that was simply a pay-for-hospitality with some extra’s thrown in…if you know what I mean…sort of business going on.

In Christianity, though, it was assumed that you would gladly welcome in other believers, not only because they would otherwise have to stay in motels and bed and breakfast inns, but also because they couldn’t afford them anyway! To the early church it was unthinkable that if you were travelling through town for the ministry of the gospel that you’d stay anywhere else but in someone else’s home.

In addition, persecution was rampant during this time, and if you did stay in an inn, you’d be risking public exposure to being reported, captured, kidnapped, or arrested. So it was always smarter to stay with people you could trust anyway.

Also, widows and orphans were a huge priority of the local church in that day. So where else did they come to live and be cared for than in homes. A major way of practicing hospitality in that day then, was to house these sorts of people who could not possibly care for themselves otherwise.

But notice I said earlier that generally speaking, hospitality was kindness and friendship being shown to believing strangers. There are significant exceptions to that statement which even call into question the word, generally. For example, in Luke 14:12 and following, Jesus instructs His followers with this teaching on hospitality to all kinds of people, and not just our friends.

“Then he turned to his host. ‘When you put on a luncheon or a banquet,’ he said, ‘don't invite your friends, brothers, relatives, and rich neighbors. For they will invite you back, and that will be your only reward. Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Then at the resurrection of the righteous, God will reward you for inviting those who could not repay you’” (Luke 14:12-14, NLT)

That doesn’t sound like believing strangers only, does it? I don’t believe it actually can only refer to believers. And here’s why. Because at the last judgment, believers are going to be separated and distinguished from the unbelievers based on how they treated others less fortunate. In the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats in Matthew 25, here’s what Jesus teaches.

"But when the Son of Man* comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. All the nations* will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left.

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.'

"Then these righteous ones will reply, 'Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?'

"And the King will say, 'I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters,* you were doing it to me!'" (25:34-40, NLT).

The feeding of the hungry, the giving of drink to the thirsty, the clothing of the naked, the caring for the sick are all activities done in the home. The only one mentioned that isn’t taking place in the home is the visiting of prisoners.

Some scholars would argue over whether the phrase “my brothers and sisters” is referring to the people Jesus is speaking to, or the people He is speaking about. I believe Jesus is referring to the believers He’s talking to, and the phrase “the least of these” is being used to refer to the people Jesus is talking about. The language makes complete sense that way. One more example which seems to confirm this understanding is the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

“‘A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road.

‘By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A Temple assistant* walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.

‘Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins,* telling him, “Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I'll pay you the next time I'm here.”

‘Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?’ Jesus asked.”

“The man replied, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’

“Then Jesus said, ‘Yes, now go and do the same’” (Luke 10:30-37, NLT).

In this story hospitality is happening big time. Only, in this story there’s two interesting features. First, Jesus purposefully turns things backwards for His Jewish audience, because in the story, the Jewish man is hurt and the Samaritan man (whom Jews hated passionately) is doing the caring. That was life-changing, ego-impacting, mind-altering teaching for Jew, who was thinking they would never be someone who would receive help from a Samaritan.

Then, there’s the other interesting feature here of a Samaritan turning to a hospital of sorts to care for him and offer the hurt Jewish man hospitality. He wasn’t able to take him to his own him because there was probably no medical care at his house. So He took him to an innkeeper who would have operated somewhat like an urgent care facility, perhaps.

Now my point here is this: Hospitality is about being a friend who is fond of strangers, whether they are believers or unbelievers. And the Bible teaches that this is something ALL Christians are to excel at, and local church leaders are to be exemplary at…beyond all reproach. Consider the support for this belief in the only other two passages in the Bible where the same Greek word, philoxenos, is used.

“Don't just pretend to love others. Really love them…When God's people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality” (Romans 12:9a, 13, NLT).

This was written to the Christians at the church in Rome. And how applicable this first verse is for us today. For it is all too common to be nice to strangers on the outside, but be fearful on the inside…even if the strangers are other believers! How weird is that?! If the average Christian in America face the challenge of housing another Christian, they’d act all weird and strange and fearful. But Paul says here that Christians are always to be ready to help them. And not only that, but they’re to “be eager to practice hospitality.” That means they were to be pursuing it always.

“ ‘Practice’ means ‘pursue’ or ‘chase’ and sometimes means ‘strenuous pursuit.’ Christians, and especially leaders, are not simply to wait for opportunities for hospitality but are to pursue them” (Kent Hughes, 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus, p. 79).

The other text where we have used the Greek word for hospitality, is 1 Peter 4:9, which teaches all Christians,

“The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay” (NLT).

The “those” to whom Peter referred to here necessarily includes those to whom Jesus referred in the first passage I referred to above in Luke 14…and those to whom Jesus referred to in the Parable of the Sheep and Goats in Matthew 25. It would include strangers, and not just believers, and definitely not just our friends. Notice that Peter conjoins the idea of hospitality here with eschatology, or the teaching of the future. The fact that the world is going to end soon should motivate fervent love for one another, which is shown primarily in sharing our homes with those who need a meal or a bed…or just a home in which to live and be loved and be cared for. Certainly it would most definitely, however, include God’s people too. For Paul was clear in Galatians 6:9-10,

“So let's not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith” (NLT).

Now as this relates to a man who wants to be or is now a local church leader, the bottom line is this. You simply cannot be fearful or hesitant in the slightest degree in exemplifying hospitality. And why is that? Because the very essence of hospitality is the very essence of the gospel. And for local church leaders, they must exemplify that the gospel is not just about words of preaching and teaching, but it is about deeds of lifestyle and love.

The very message of the gospel is about helping those who cannot help themselves. To be negligent in practicing and pursuing and chasing opportunities for hospitality is to be negligent in preaching the gospel…just as much as it would be if you didn’t pursue opportunities to preach and teach it with words. That’s why I believe Paul may have put these two qualifications together: showing hospitality, and apt to teach. To run your mouth about the gospel but have it be absent in your home is not beyond or above reproach. It is a glaring contradiction when it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I’ll close on this point with John MacArthur’s words.

“The door of the Christian home, as well as the heart of the Christian family, ought to be open to all who come in need. That is especially true of the overseer. Elders are not elevated to a place where they are unapproachable. They are to be available. A pastor’s life and home are to be open so that his true character is manifest to all who come there, friend or stranger” (1 Timothy, p. 108).

Next, I'll spend a few minutes unpacking what Paul means by "apt to teach."

The Local Church: What It All Means

The Simple Kingdom: Keeping the Mission Simple...Personally and Corporately

The Gospel on Homosexuality: How Do We Call It Sin and Still Embrace the Sinner?

Is the Church a Hobby for Christians and a Sandbox for Pastors? Part 2

What is the Character of a Gospel-Driven Leader? Part Twelve

What is the Character of a Gospel-Driven Leader? Part Eleven

What is the Character of a Gospel-Driven Leader? Part Ten

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