Sunday Post for Shepherds - While You Are In This World. . .

"Feed you tenderly, with all diligence, the flock of Christ. Preach truly the Word of God. Love the light, walk in the light, and so be you the children of light while you are in this world, that you may shine in the world to come, bright as the sun, with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." 

From Works, Vol 1 pp 50-57, by Hugh Latimer (1487-1555), 

English Reformer, Bishop, Chaplain, and Martyr

Do Not Quell the Tumults, and Smile at the Upheavals

In response to Erasmus' assertion that, "It is lawful to speak the truth, but it is not expedient to do so in every company, nor at every time, nor in every way," Luther writes:

Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536)

. . .You make it clear that this carnal peace and quiet seems to you far more important than faith, conscience, salvation, the Word of God, the glory of Christ, and God himself. . .You say this sort of thing simply because you have not read, or at any rate have not noticed, that it is regularly the case with the Word of God that the world is thrown into confusion by reason of it. Christ openly affirms as much: "I came not (says He) to send peace, but a sword (Matt 10:34). So in Luke: "I came to send fire on the earth" (12:49). So Paul, in 1 Cor 6: "In tumults," etc. (2 Cor. 6:5). The prophet in the second Psalm bears elaborate testimony to the same truth when he declares that the nations are in uproar, the peoples rage, the kings rise up, the rulers conspire, against the Lord and against Christ--as though to say that the many, the mighty, the wealth, power, wisdom, righteousness and all that is exalted in the world opposes the Word of God. Look at the Acts of the Apostles, and see there what happened in the world by reason of the word of Paul alone (to say nothing of the other apostles)--how, single-handed, he threw into confusion Jews and Gentiles alike. As his foes said of him, he turned the world upside down! (Acts 17:6). The kingdom of Israel was thrown into confusion under Elijah, as Ahab complained (1 Kings 18:17). What upheaval was there under the other prophets, when they were all executed or stoned, and Israel was led captive into Assyria, and Judah to Babylon! Was that peace? The world and its god cannot and will not bear the Word of the true God, and the true God cannot and will not keep silent. Now these two Gods are at war; so what else can there be throughout the world but uproar?
     To want to quell these tumults, therefore, is really to want to remove the Word of God and stop its course. When the Word of God comes, it comes to change and renew the world, and even heathen writers acknowledge that such changes cannot take place without commotion and upheaval--nor, indeed, without bloodshed. Now it is the Christian's part to expect and coolly to endure these things--as Christ says, "When you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, be not dismayed: for these things must first come to pass, but the end is not yet" (Matt 24:6). Personally, did I not see the upheavals, I should say that the Word of God was not in the world. Now that I see them, I rejoice from my heart and smile at them, knowing for sure that the Pope's kingdom and all its allies will fall; for the Word of God is now in full cry, and these are its principal target. . .
 

Martin Luther (1483-1546)

  Stop your complaining, stop your doctoring, the origin and continuance of this conflict is from God; and it will not cease till all who oppose the Word have become as the mire of the streets.
     . . .You grovel on the ground and cannot conceive of anything that is above man's understanding. But there is nothing childish, or merely man-like, about the operations of God; they are Divine, and they exceed man's grasp. And that is why you fail to see that it is by reason of God's will and activity that these tumults and divisions are raging throughout the world--and so you are afraid that the sky will fall. . .You see again how unadvisedly you rush against the Word of God, as though you rated your own thoughts and ideas far above it. -- From The Bondage of the Will, Revell Edition, pages 90-95

    

Reform Means Conflict

If you are worshiping peace, you are not imitating Jesus (or the Apostles, or the Reformers, or even a faithful Christian parent).

"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me."

Jesus the Lord, Matthew 10:34-40

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." 

Jesus the Lord, Matthew 22:37-40 

"If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceable with all." 

The Apostle Paul, Romans 12:18

"Peace if possible. Truth at all costs."

Martin Luther

The New Testament (mostly the Apostle Paul, who stirred up much trouble) is loaded with exhortations to pursue and guard peace and unity within the Church. And while the exhortations stand, Paul's life and practice was to simultaneously instigate significant unrest in his efforts to clarify and guard the gospel. Be like that, or be an idolater. There is no reform without conflict.

 

Sunday Post for Shepherds - Be Protestant, Make Enemies, Save Yourself, Love the Church

The reason Martin Luther was of any use 500 years ago, and the reason he is still celebrated today, is because he questioned everything. It was all on the table, and under the scrutiny of Scripture, because Luther understood that Scripture is a judge (He 4:12), and a mirror (Ja 1:19-25), and a cleanser (Ep 5:25-27), and God's Word (2 Ti 3:16). He believed that God had actually spoken to His people, that Scripture is replete with instructions as well as corrections (2 Ti 3:16-17).

Here's the point - Luther didn't pastor doing whatever he damn well pleased. He pastored laying every detail of his life and church life in the crucible of God's refining fire called The Bible. Shepherds are to deliberately and consistently judge all things about themselves and their work against what God is saying in His Word. The reality appears to be that many professing Protestant pastors are leading their churches to ignore God, as they themselves do.

Pastors assume; assume the songs of their congregations are acceptable to God; assume their prayers are acceptable to God; assume the order of service, that is, the components of the church gathering, are worthy of God's blessing; assume their preaching (often taking weeks to teach a handful of verses) is the way God wants it; assume church structure is right and that leaders are actually qualified for their ministries; assume their practice of the sacraments is as it should be; assume their take on the Lord's Day is just fine, possibly because it's not terribly important; etc.

What I am sure of is that we do not live in a day when, generally speaking, Protestant Pastors are given to evaluation, reflection, analysis, thoughtfulness, and reform. We live in a day when pastors often take their work lightly, and carry on as if the Head of the Church has not left full and detailed instructions for His bride. It's quite astonishing really, to speak with so many pastors over the years who have never seriously measured their ways of thinking and their ministry practices against the very Word of God. And since there are three New Covenant letters written especially to church leaders, the dilemma is all the more perplexing. GOD HAS SPOKEN! But are we eager to hear Him, and trust Him, and submit to Him? Luther did, and that has everything to do with why any of us have the gospel today.

Why is there no sweeping pastoral effort to conscientiously connect their congregations to the Church of history, and to the suffering Church of today? The Bible teaches both, but who takes that seriously when their congregation gathers? The New Covenant Church understood their relationship to the Church of the ages, beginning in Eden, and referenced it regularly. They also embraced their duty to relieve the suffering of persecuted saints. I've never met with a church doing either. And what about our children? Why are they treated as pagans within our congregations? That is not the way the Bible saints treated them, nor the way the Reformers understood their relationship to Christ. And why are untrained and theologically unsound lay elders given equal voice with trained and more gifted vocational pastors? That's foolish, and I would argue impossible to justify biblically.

This is your work dear brothers - to know what God says and what God means by what He says and then leading God's people to conform by reforming. If that's not what you're into, repent, or resign, because you're a part of the problem, and in a precarious position to answer for yourself on the last day (Ja 3:1). 

Am I being negative? I think I'm being accurate. And what's wrong with being negative if negative describes the reality? God help us. The truth is way too many pastors wearing the label of Protestant don't know enough Bible to get themselves into trouble, their seminary diplomas notwithstanding. Read Luther. Read about Luther. Learn how God's Word is put together. Grasp Law and Gospel, and Covenant. Study the pastoral letters. Pray and think and debate. Sharpen thyself, and help thy sheep, which are first God's fold. Work and suffer and pray again. Make some enemies. Do something requiring courage. Take your skirt off and put on man pants. Stop trying to please everyone. Get secure in Christ. Love God and God's people. And/Or as Paul says to Timothy (and you), "Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching. Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery. Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all. Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you." (1 Ti 4:16, emphasis added). Now that is a recipe for reform.

Sunday Post for Shepherds -- Courage & Reformation

Wednesday was Reformation Day; for on October 31, 1517, German Augustinian monk Martin Luther inadvertently, but somewhat formally, began the Protestant Reformation. And while his intention to begin a world changing movement was not present, his courage certainly was; courage to challenge long held beliefs precious to his own church. May God grant Christian pastors of our day the same kind of protestant courage, a courage rooted in Bible doctrine and our certainty of God's trustworthiness when He speaks. We will know this has come when God's men "do not shrink back from declaring the whole counsel of God" (Ac 20:27); when God's approval means more than that of the congregation (Mt 10:28); when we lean on God's grace and not our paychecks (Mt 10:31); and when we see the fruit of such preaching -- thriving and dying churches. For the Word of God is a hammer (Je 23), both softening hearts unto repentance and hardening hearts unto damnation (Ro 9). The chief weapon in the growth of one church and the killing of another is the same -- the proclaimed Word of God.

And when hearts are moved unto repentance and faith by God's Word, our outward practices also change to reflect what has happened on the inside. For pastors this means our gatherings begin to look and sound and feel different, because we are trusting God the Holy Spirit and detesting man-centered religion where numbers and reputations reign.

So go on brother pastor, preach the Bible systematically. Say about God what God says about Himself. Teach doctrine and stop with the "how to" sermonnettes, for we are designed to know Him (Jn 17:3), not "success." Abolish the altar call which forever ties God's saving work to something we do. Rid your congregation of the songs that could be more fittingly sung to our pets. Take that American flag out of the auditorium and teach your folks that Christians, not structures, are the Lord's sanctuary. Set up a book stall filled with resources that help your flock better understand the Bible. Design your gatherings in a way that enables your people to do all the "one another" commands of the New Testament. Establish a council of biblically qualified elders to rule the church under Christ's headship (You might want to do this first, so that you aren't trying reform alone). And then lead them to mercifully excommunicate faithless members of the flock. Begin to sit together at the Lord's Table often enough for it to actually serve its good purposes. And when you do, use the elements our Lord consecrated for the meal, including wine. And if the elements do not matter, and therefore a shot of grape juice is sufficient, then we might as well serve Coca-Cola and Little Debbie oatmeal cream pies.

In other words, we must pray and labor to see both ourselves and our flocks reformed by Scripture. This is not only what Luther would do, but what Jesus commands (Mt 28:18-19). Trust the Lord of the Church enough to do it all His way. Move at a reasonable pace, and with great patience (2 Ti 4:2). But by all means, do move! For to do so is to love Christ and His people (1 Pe 5:1-5; Jn 14:14-22).

It is quite possible, and even common I think, for a pastor to preach the Scriptures but then not lead his folks to do them. Doing them (reformation) gets worked out in the meetings and conversations and decisions. It is not enough to say what God says. Doing what God says is our vocation (Ja 1:22).

Rembering Reformation Day -- October 31, 1517

I hope to say more later. But for now, at least I can point us to the instrument of God in His founding of Protestantism, our beloved Martin Luther (1483-1546). I will offer only a very few quotes and a brief comment.

Take away assertions and you take away Christianity.

The plain evidence is that free choice is a pure fiction.

There is nothing easier than sinning.

There is no more terrible disaster with which the wrath of God can afflict man than a famine of the hearing of his Word. But there is no greater mercy than when God sends forth his Word.

The Romanists want to be masters of Holy Scripture, although they never learn a thing from the Bible.

It is not sufficient for anyone, and it does him no good to recognize God in his glory and majesty, unless he recognizes him in the humility and shame of the cross . . . For this reason true theology and recognition of God are in the crucified Christ. God can be found only in suffering and the cross.

In searching yesterday for books by or about Luther in the bookstores of my town (3 "Christian" ones, a Borders, & a Joseph Beth), I learned that only one of them had anything, and it is a small work written to children. This is shameful. Not only do we Christians not know how it is that God in His kindness got the gospel to us when it was all but lost, and how much it cost those He employed; we don't seem to care. Stores aren't selling Luther because customers aren't interested in church history in general and the Reformation in particular. This man has so much to do with why any of us are Christians. And, he's hilarious, colorful, witty, engaging, courageous, humble, fearless, etc. Read about Luther. And read Luther. Your efforts will be well rewarded. Resource recommendations to follow in the next post. I hope you have a wonderful Reformation Day.