Category: Preaching

Heralding the Response-Demanding News

Preach it with tenderness

“Were you able to preach it with tenderness?”

That’s the question which came in response to the sermon on Psalm 9.17: “The Wicked shall be turned into hell”

How do you preach that text?  

Not just the content. Not just the truth of the text.  But how do you preach that text within the full compass of biblical revelation? How do you preach it within the gravitational pull of the glory of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ, the risen, incarnate One?

How do you do it?

So the question, with the gentle rebuke in it,  was asked:

“Were you able to preach it with tenderness?”.

Who were these two men? The preacher and the questioner?

The preacher was Andrew Bonar. The questioner was Robert Murray M’Cheyne.

You see M’Cheyne had been deeply concerned in his own life that he would not permit a bitterness to develop  in how he viewed the people. The reason was that although judgement needed to be preached clearly, it also needed to be preached so as to pierce through the conscience with God’s gracious love.  This meant that every grave and urgent warning needed to be marked with “angelic tenderness.”

Bonar said of M’Cheyne:

Of this bitterness in preaching, … so sensible was he of its being quite natural to all of us, that oftentimes he made it the subject of conversation, and used to grieve over himself if he had spoken with anything less than solemn compassion.  

Memoirs and Remains of Robert Murray M’Cheyne, 53.

Here are seven ways to avoid bitter preaching.

1. Watch Strong Passions

Desire is a key component to the preachers calling (see 1 Tim 3:1). Desire must be there. Passion for preaching the truth must be in hand.

However, the virtues of desire and passion for a good thing like preaching can get distorted later on into the vices of wrong passion and selfish desire.

Consider that all of Paul’s ministerial opponents (Judaizers at Galatia, Super-apostles in Corinth, etc) must have had a strong sense of ‘desire’ to preach their message!

Paul could say, “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!’ (1 Cor 9.17).

There was desire and passion in that statement. But there was never the distortion of passion into something else.

Distortions come when we are overruled by passion for select truths and desire for select types of change.

Remember, the prediction made by Paul in 2 Tim4.3 that people “ will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,”

Teachers who are passionate about the noble task, are easily tempted to be passionate about various selective passions, causes, movements,  and desires.

There was a man that I know whose ministry was very influential on me, introducing me to some of the more detailed elements of historic protestant theology. He was passionate about reformation. He was passionate about revival. Sadly today after a series of doctrinal changes, his passion is for unity between denominations with particular sympathy for the Church of Rome. He is not a Roman Catholic, but it is striking to see the following which he has among Roman Catholics who are courting dissatisfied Evangelicals.

His passion for ecclesiastical unity led him to find the grass always greener everywhere else, except in his own backyard. Yet in his new tolerance there is an edge of intolerance for the leaders and theology which he used to embrace, an apparent bitterness toward former friends.

When we adopt passion for individual causes we can develop bitterness for those who don’t do the same. Since others aren’t accompanying this “one-note tune” then it can be easy for us to feel frustrated and injured. Then we can get bitter in our preaching.

2. Avoid Being Quarrelsome

From this point I want to trace out 2 Tim 2.24-25, which begins with this statement, “And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome”.

Being the Lord’s servant, means you are owned by one greater than you.  By contrast, being quarrelsome means you are protecting your own bit of turf.

It is easy for us to think about people in our church as the opponents. And we are amassing our arguments to defend our positions so that we can slay our opponents in three easy moves.

When we are passionate about our position. When we have staked out our ground on the issue. It is quite easy to change our view of the sheep into a crowd of potential debate partners, adversaries and challengers.

This leads to polemical preaching which fights battles like Don Quixote— charging at windmills.

This is ‘battling for the truth’ that is akin to those who ‘devote themselves to myths and to endless genealogies’ (1 Tim 1.4).  

This is why guys who are known as being ‘battlers’ often lack what real defenders of the faith have: solemn compassion.

When a godly, learned man gives a denunciation of falsehood, it is always so thorough, so gracious, so comprehensive, so as to be utterly devastating.

But you can never say, “Oh, ya… that guy was just taking cheap shots”.   

No. The preacher’s solemn compassion for the deceived, makes him just and fair in denouncing the deceivers and their deception.

3. Seek Kindness to Everyone

Consider the next point in Paul’s bullet list in 2 Timothy 2:24-25, “be…kind to everyone”.
This makes pastoral unkindness an oxymoron. Yet how often are we given to speaking in unkind ways to people, and especially about people.

A pastor friend shared the counsel that he gave to a married couple who were struggling greatly and fighting often. He said to the husband, “She is not the enemy!”

And in the relationship between the pastor and the church, we must be careful that we don’t view each other as ‘the enemy’. Satan and sin — those are enemies. False teachers are enemies. Not blood bought sinners bound for glory.

In our preaching and our speaking, we must resist any temptation to pastoral unkindness. We must be valiant for truth, but we have to work at waging our warfare without unkindness.

4. Work at Teaching

Being “able to teach” (2 Tim 2:24) is that distinct qualification of an elder/pastor/overseer (1 Tim 3:2). And in this context of resistance, or potential confusion, clear teaching is what is required. To teach is to be compassionate. It is to empathize with where people are at and bring the truth to them. It is harder work to teach someone than it is to be careless of their lack of understanding. 

It is like the picture in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. Christian was given a telescope by the Shepherds. Through it he saw the gate of the Celestial City. So also a pastor’s teaching offers the vision of what lies ahead, and the pathway to get there.

When we are bitter or harsh we will wonder why these people can’t figure this out? But we will fail to work at teaching because it is simpler, and sometimes lazier to trumpet the goal, but offer no assistance to get there.

5. Patiently Endure Evil.

Fulfilling the calling as the Lord’s servant, the preacher must be marked by patience in enduring evil (2 Tim 2:24). 

Why does Paul have to say this?

He says it because the tidal wave of evil in the world makes one a) impatient for an end of it, and b) unwilling to endure the waves rolling over us.

Bitter preaching or harsh preaching is often impatient and unwilling to endure evil. It calls for justice and change and transformation now. It is unwilling to trust in the superiority of God’s global solution in Jesus Christ, a salvation for sinners that is both cosmic in scope and personal in experience.

Solemn compassion in preaching exhibits a clear view of the now/not yet of the kingdom, and so patiently endures the evil tide.   Solemn compassion knows that ultimately this tide too will pass (Rev 21:1).

6. Correct Opponents with Gentleness

 This is where preaching that has a corrective function is proven whether it is done compassionately or with harshness.

Can correction by Spirit-wrought, biblical argument be made without resorting to strong-arm tactics?  Or is the bully pulpit required to ‘correct’ others.

Often the use of the harsh bully pulpit by a preacher betrays their lack of thought, prep, study, and reasoning about an issue.

The ethos is this: You don’t agree with me—- So let me shout louder!

Of the many examples in Jesus’ ministry, his lament over Jerusalem epitomizes his strongly convinced condemnation of Jerusalem’s sin. He is compassionate in telling them the truth but unbending in the truth of it. He said:

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!

Matthew 23:37

We need to be Christ-like in this way, loving people enough to clearly tell the truth and not hiding behind gentleness as a cover for our negligence. In the same way we should love people enough to temper the edge of our truth-telling with gentleness. 

It’s like the blacksmith crafting the iron of the forged knife. It will never keep a sharp edge unless the hot blade is quenched and cured. Our preaching can be sharp and surgical when its unbending truth is holding the keen edge of gentleness.

M’Cheyne made the observation:

It is not saying hard things that pierces the conscience of our people; it is the voice of Divine love heard amid the thunder. The sharpest point of the two-edged sword is not death but life

Memoirs and Remains of Robert Murray M’Cheyne, 53.

7.  Look to God to Change People

This is the final perspective that creates compassion versus harshness in our preaching, even in the midst of controversy.

We must look to God to change people.

There is a calm and secure resignation in the ability of God to “grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim 2:25).

Trusting in God’s sovereign ability is always a good policy. We should be expectant of the possibility that God, in his freeness, may choose to grant repentance to the stubborn. When we aren’t expectant of this, we betray our own creeping unbelief. Such unbelief is soil for bitterness in our preaching.

Of course we must look to God because in all of our conflict, we are engaged in spiritual warfare, especially when we are attempting to correct opponents who need to “come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will” (2 Tim 2:26). Only God can do this supernatural work of changing stubborn hearts.

We must look to God to change our own hearts that we would repent, and then expect him to be able to do the same for others. 

So in all of our ministry, like M’Cheyne said to Bonar, the question remains:

“Did I preach it with tenderness?”

What does the pastor do?

How does the pastor spend his time? That is a question that sometimes arises from some who are critical and most who are just curious.

Medieval monks would spend their time at appointed hours praying, singing and chanting at their home, while transcribing texts in the intervening hours.

At the Reformation, so little of the previous centuries work had been dedicated to preaching, that the Reformers stood out for their emphasis on the pulpit.

The consistory of Geneva spent a great deal of time reviewing pastoral care issues, thinking through them biblically and apply counsel to people and situations. Sometimes the counsel and care was disregarded and some Genevans preferred to be disciplined out of the church, than to be discipled in the church. All of this took organization and care. But the primary driver of the ministry was the Word work. Calvin’s preaching through the bible provided the basis for doctrine in the church in Geneva, and the surrounding village churches that worked together with Calvin’s, seeking counsel from Calvin’s elders, even making requests for pulpit supply.

Some things have changed, but others have stayed the same.

Word Work & Prayer Work

Today the work of the Word and Prayer (cf. Acts 6:4) are the two greatest tasks which the pastor must undertake. Both of these are work. It is not enough to tell the congregation that you just didn’t ‘get anything out of the Word’ this week. It requires mental and spiritual ‘sweat’. It is taxing. It makes you tired like all work does.

The Word work and Prayer work  have the added problem of being difficult to measure. Prayer is done ‘in the closet’. Word work is  done ‘at the desk’. But consider that the person who is in the closet or at the desk is largely out of sight. That means that it can appear as if the faithful pastor is unaccountable or unavailable or invisible.

What is the measure of the Word and Prayer work? It is seen in the fruit of the ministry. It is seen in the healthy diet which people feed upon. It is seen in the Spirit’s illumination of people to understand God’s word better, to be helped by God’s truth, to glorify God’s ways.

The weakness of the pulpit speaks to the emptiness of the closet and the barrenness of the desk.

Pastoralist Work

But there is another aspect to the pastoral ministry that must have a part. It is the pastoralist part. That is, it is the awareness and care for the condition of the sheep. The pastor must know the people he is feeding. If he doesn’t know what their condition is, then the diet he offers will be too thick or too thin, too spicy or too sweet.

So the pastor exhorts and teaches personally in his interactions with people. He hears their anxieties and cares. He points them to Christ. This is the pastor’s task also.

Not Shopkeeper Nor Therapist

Sometimes people can get confused about their expectations for the pastor. Pastors can be viewed as shop-keepers or therapists.  Some sheep don’t wish to be led to feed in green pastures, but wish to be treated like a pet in the shepherd’s home.

As David Wells has pointed out, our era is a Therapeutic Age. And this emphasis has dominated the thought of pastors and church members. The people expect the pastor to be a therapist, on call to fix them, and the pastor moves increasingly to be responsive to the ‘felt needs’ of the people. This mindset came to dominate the pastoral style of the seeker sensitive movement. And with it, the sufficiency of the Scriptures was lost as desks and closets were left empty.

So there is a constant struggle which the pastor faces. He must be jealous to guard the desk and closet time. As John Macarthur said many times, “the task of the pastor-teacher is to keep his rear-end in the chair until the job is done”. On the other hand, the pastor must know the sheep, and be able to offer feeding and protection according to their needs. He must do this without subtly giving in to worldly expectations of his role which come from the people or from himself.

It’s Only A Sermon Away

What is one of the reasons why people don’t go to church? It is that the preaching is so lifeless. Even the idea conjured up by the word ‘sermon’ involves something tedious or mind-numbing.

So pastors have to get back to the simple source for spiritual life in their churches, that is seeking the Spirit of Christ in their preaching.  Calvin made the point clearly:

As long as the law is preached by the external voice of man, and not inscribed by the finger and Spirit of God on the heart, it is but a dead letter, and as it were a lifeless thing (1)

But then the same applies to the hearer. Are you seeking Christ, so that the Spirit can awaken life within you? More than that, the Spirit can create new life within you, causing you to be born ‘from above’.

It is the great untried opportunity of this age. Yet it’s only a sermon away.

(1) John Calvin , Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 297.

Why You Should Attend the Calvary Grace Conference

One of the things that happens when you do something for a while is that you start to de-prioritize it. When life is busy, the things that used to be special become commonplace. As the old saying goes, ‘familiarity breeds contempt’.
 

Same Old, Same Old

 
That can happen at church very easily. The same preaching. The same singing. The same arrangement of people in the pews. What was special and precious becomes common and even forgettable. Same old, same old.
 

Your First Love

Now we know that the church is not a social club, so our enjoyment and prioritizing of the church is rooted in something much more important—our love for Jesus. If we lose our ‘first love’ (Rev 2.4), then we will certainly lose our love for the church. But as we grow in our love for Jesus, we will love what he loves— the congregation of smelly, stubborn sheep( cf. John 10.11).
 

Conferences as Intense Spiritual Opportunities

 
The same is even true for specific things like conferences. A conference is an opportunity to have intensive focus on God’s word and his ways in fellowship with other people. A conference can provide a special season of growing in the Lord. This is the reason that I have wanted Calvary Grace to host a conference. It adds an annual time of intense spiritual opportunity for spiritual growth.
 

Conferences as Services to the Church

 
But there is also another reason. Conferences give a host church the opportunity to minister to other Christians (and even non-Christians) who might not enjoy very many spiritual growth opportunities. It is a chance to meet other brothers and sisters in Christ. And it is a way to stoke each others’ spiritual fires through mutual listening, sharing and serving.
 

The Powerful Relevance of Holiness

 
Maybe you’re thinking that, ‘I’ve heard all of these speakers before. There’s nobody new’. Well that’s true. But the topic of Holiness is so critical for our generation, that the content of the messages will certainly be powerfully relevant to your Christian life. Don’t let familiarity lead to contempt. Rather let prayer lead to expectancy.
 

Please pray for this weekend’s conference.

 

Pray for the speakers: Amanda, Christel, Jeff, Paul, Terry, Gavin and myself.
 
Pray for the volunteers in childcare, greeting, sound, setup, book table and more.
 
Pray for the people who will attend; who may not get to hear good teaching on a regular basis, who are starving, looking to be fed.
 
Pray for our Holy God to be glorified in his Triune majesty.
 
Finally, support the Calvary Grace Conference with your presence.
 
Who knows how God will use you this weekend
http://www.calvarygrace.ca/cgc-winter-conference-holiness-the-refiners-fire-in-a-facebook-age

5 Assessments of Pastors According to Calvin’s Geneva

In the Draft Order of Visitation of the Country Churches January 11, 1546 [1], there are some points made about what to watch for in assessing the ministries of pastors.

1. Doctrinal unity.

The first order of business was to make sure that the pastor maintained, “proper uniformity of doctrine in the whole body of the Church of Geneva.” This was done by having two Genevan pastors visit the country churches in order to, “enquire whether the Ministry of the place have accepted any doctrine in any sense new and repugnant to the purity of the gospel.” So the churches weren’t little labs where pastors could exercise their speculative experiments. They were expected to be fairly conservative, that is, unchanging in their doctrine.

2. Wise Application

Not only was the doctrine to be in line with the other Genevan churches, there was an expectation that the minister would preach with wise applications. He wasn’t to preach, “anything at all scandalous, or unfitting to the instruction of the people because it is obscure, or treats of superfluous questions, or exercises too great rigour.” In applying his expositions, the pastor wasn’t grinding axes or riding hobby-horses. How many ‘Calvinist’ pastors today are guilty of ‘exercising too much rigour’.

3. Congregational Support

The pastor wasn’t the only one who was held accountable. The congregation was urged to be diligent not only in attending church services, but “to have a liking for it, and to find profit in it for Christian living.”  Many congregations need to be reminded of their responsibility to support the pastor’s ministry, and to like it.

4. Pastoral Care

Pastors were supposed to be engaged in ministry outside of the pulpit, through visitation of the sick and counselling. Specifically pastors were to confront those who needed it, as well as applying counsel to prevent patterns of sin.

5. Pastoral Integrity

The last element that was examined was whether the pastor had a testimony marked by integrity.  Basically, did the pastor live as an example to others, leading “an honest life”? Also, the pastor’s reputation was checked to see if people viewed areas of his life as lacking self control (“dissoluteness”) or being flaky (“frivolity”). Finally,the pastor needed to have a harmonious relationship to the congregation. And above all of these he needed to have his family life in order.

These priorities are quite basic. But how often do pastors fail to maintain these basic emphases? May God grant us mercy to fulfill our duties.

[1] JKS Reid, Calvin: Theological Treatises, (SCM Press, 1954), 74

Bitter Preachers?

Of this bitterness in preaching, … so sensible was he of its being quite natural to all of us, that oftentimes he made it the subject of conversation, and used to grieve over himself if he had spoken with anything less than solemn compassion.

Andrew Bonar’s recollection of Robert Murray M’Cheyne, (Memoirs and Remains of RM M’Cheyne, 53).