The following is by a friend of mine who teaches, among other things, preaching at the Baptist College of Florida.  This is an example of what is called inductive preaching.  I think it has a great insight into the text

ACTS 27

This story of Paul’s shipwreck on the way to Rome is one of my favorite stories in the New Testament.  It is a favorite of mine because, like most favorite stories do, it leaves us with more of a picture than a plot.  Great stories paint great images for us to look at and think about and learn from.

And you might not immediately see the picture when you first read this story.  On the surface, this chapter seems to be simply an overly-detailed description of a sea voyage “gone bad.”  And knowing that this is the Book of Acts we are reading, you might even wonder why Luke would devote a whole chapter to this single event in the life of Paul.

Shipwrecks were actually commonplace in the first century.  When Paul wrote the Book of II Corinthians, he said he had already been in three shipwrecks!  So it hardly seems right to take up a whole chapter in the story of the early church (only 28 chapters long) with just this one story.

And Luke gives every single detail of the trip.  He tells where they left from, and when.  He tells which way the wind was blowing.  He talks about the time of year.  In v28, he tells how deep the water was.  And in v37 he makes sure we know exactly how many people were on board.

I think these all details were written to get us thinking about the rest of the details that surround this story.  If we can put ourselves into the story with these details, then maybe we can also understand the tremendous pressures that weighed on Paul as he took this journey to Rome to stand trial.

Here was a man who had no real home.  Since the day Jesus had spoken to him on the Damascus Road, he had given everything to the cause of the Gospel!  He traveled from place to place, telling people about Christ.

He worked hard to start churches in places where there were no churches, and now his reward is to be arrested…to be arrested and sentenced to the ultimate fate.  He must appear before the highest human court in the world–the court of the emperor of Rome.  And no one will stand with him when he gets there.  He is alone.  He has given all and lost all.

And if his troubles were not enough, now the ship that is taking him to his fate is sinking in a winter storm, even after he had told the captain of the ship that it was going to happen! This is the ultimate Murphy’s Law in action!  “If you are sailing to a Roman trial and near-certain death, your ship will also sink.”

So what does Paul do?  I know what I would have done.  Griping and whining would have been the order of the day!  “I told them this was going to happen, but does anybody ever listen to me?  NOOOOOO!”

But instead of griping, whining, or general discouragement, I see the incredible picture of Paul begins to emerge in verse 33…

• after 14 days of being blown off course,
• after fourteen days of being so seasick that they could not eat,
• after 14 days of being in a storm so bad that he couldn’t sleep (v33 says this happened just before dawn, “as the day was coming on”),
• after 14 days of pure misery, the Apostle Paul kneels on a cold deck, in the pouring rain, in the blowing wind, and gives thanks over a piece of soggy bread.  “After he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all.  Then he broke it and began to eat.  They were all encouraged and ate some food themselves.”

That is the image I want you to see and to keep.  And it is an amazing picture!  It is not “singing in the rain,” but “giving thanks in the rain.”  It is not just saying that everything is fine; it is knowing that things are not fine and giving thanks in faith.

Why would anyone do that?  Why would anyone give thanks for soggy bread in the middle of a storm?  Why would anyone give thanks when the situation seems hopeless?  The only answer is that Paul knew that things would only be hopeless if they DID NOT give thanks.

That really was Paul’s philosophy.  That really was what Paul believed:

• You live by giving thanks.  You stay strong by giving thanks.
• You survive by giving thanks.

It all explains the blanket statements that Paul made in the rest of the New Testament:

• In Eph 5:4, Paul tells the Christians to give up their old ways of foolishness and coarse jesting and put, of all things, thanksgiving in its place.
• In Eph 5:20, Paul says to give thanks at all times for all things.
• In Col 2:7, Paul says to overflow with thanksgiving.
• In I Thess 5:18, Paul writes those words that some of you have even memorized…”in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”

These are all “BLANKET” STATEMENTS.  NONE of these verses ask what the circumstances are, and they should not.  That is the whole point:

• Giving thanks lives outside of circumstances.
• Giving thanks is what delivers us from being prisoners to circumstances.

That is why we are drug through this story detail by detail: because we are supposed to see Paul kneeling on the deck of a tossing ship and realize that thanksgiving is also our strength, our deliverance, from the storms, the discouragements of life.  Thanksgiving is our spiritual food.

Leadership Journal told the story of a woman who bought a parrot to keep her company, but she could not get the parrot to talk.  She returned the bird to the pet store and complained, “This bird doesn’t talk.”  The owner asked if the parrot had a mirror in its cage…”Parrots love mirrors, they can seem themselves and start a conversation with themselves.”  So the woman bought a mirror.

The next day she was back and complained that the parrot would still not talk.  The owner asked her if the parrot had a ladder in its cage.  “Parrots love ladders, and a happy parrot is a talking parrot.”  So the woman bought a ladder.

But the next day she was back again.  This time the owner asked if the parrot had a swing in his cage.  “Parrots love to swing.  Once he starts swinging, he’ll talk up a storm.”  So woman bought a swing.

She was back on the fourth day, but this time she came with sad news.  She told the owner, “my parrot died.”  The store owner was shocked and said, “Oh, I am sorry…did he ever talk before he died?”  “Yes,” the woman said, “just before he died, he looked up at me and said–’don’t they sell any food at that pet store?’”

The act of giving thanks is our spiritual food.  It takes us through the unbearable.  It allows us to bow before God in the worst of circumstances and come away with encouragement and confidence that God is with us and knows all about our situation.  We were never meant to live without gratitude.

Several years ago, a fine man named Lamar Breland died.  You don’t know his name, but I wanted to tell you about him.  He is one of those unsung church heroes.  He was one of our deacons, and a wonderful man.   He loved to fish.  He loved to tell stories.  You knew it was going to be a classic Lamar Breland story when he would say, “now here’s a sho-nuff true story!”  With Lamar, they were all “sho-nuff” true stories.  He loved to see friends and family.  He just loved to see folks.

But at the end of his life, he went through the mill.  It started with pneumonia.  And then for some reason, he got an awful case of TMJ.  Every time I saw him, he was just in agony.  And the pain from that would aggravate his heart problems.  And then finally, the cancer came.

One day at his house, after the doctors had told Lamar there was nothing else they could do, Lamar was sitting in his chair and he looked at me and said, “You know Ed, God has given me a wonderful life.”

And for just a moment, I could have sworn that I saw a man on a ship, kneeling in the rain, thanking God for soggy bread.  And it made me wonder if I had really yet tapped into the power God has placed in the simple act of giving thanks.

Prayer is, perhaps, the most important element for those seeking a great awakening.  A lot of things happen when we spend time with God in prayer.  God has chosen that the mechanism of prayer to be his way of allowing us to participate in the ruling of his world.  God chooses to do something only when we pray and only when we pray according to his will.  This fact struck me some time back when I was doing a study in the Book of Revelation.  Notice what these verses say.

Revelation 8:1 When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
2 And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.
3 Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne.
4 And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel’s hand.
5 Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake. (Rev 8:1-5 NASB)

The action of heaven stops for about an hour so that the angels could collect the prayers of the saints and add them to the smoke of the incense.  Then and only then did he cast it to the earth as an act of judgment.

If we do not pray, we do not hear God.  Even reading his Word will not penetrate our hearts if we do not practice the art of conversation with God.  We become like the fool of the book of Proverbs who refuses to listen to Wisdom:

22 “How long, O naive ones, will you love being simple-minded? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing And fools hate knowledge?
23 “Turn to my reproof, Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you.
24 “Because I called and you refused, I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention;
25 And you neglected all my counsel And did not want my reproof;
26 I will also laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your dread comes,
27 When your dread comes like a storm And your calamity comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you.
28 “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently but they will not find me,
29 Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the LORD.
30 “They would not accept my counsel, They spurned all my reproof.
31 “So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way And be satiated with their own devices.
32 “For the waywardness of the naive will kill them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them.
33 “But he who listens to me shall live securely And will be at ease from the dread of evil.” (Pro 1:22-33 NASB)

God’s judgment on those who do not hear is to abandon them to themselves. Romans 1 confirms that this is the worst kind of judgment is this life.  But those who listen to God shall be secure.

How does one pray for revival?  One prays with brokenness and honesty.  We may not know how far from God we truly are until we make prayer for revival a regular part of our lives. Too often our prayer lives are just  slight glances at God with a few words that we really have not thought though.  When we finally become aware of our sin before God, it should shake us up.  And when we realize that God has not been listening to us because of our sin, then it should cause us to cry out for mercy.  There are several Psalms that serve as an example of when God stopped listening to the nation or to the one praying.  Psalm 51 is, of course, a Psalm of Contrition.  There David begs God to restore to him the joy of his salvation.  That sounds like revival to me.  Psalm 80 implores God to rescue his people.  But there is more than that.  He asks, “O LORD God of hosts, How long will You be angry with the prayer of Your people?”  The people have so sinned that God was angry even with their prayers. All one can do is ask God to forgive us and move beyond this impasse.  And only God can remove the barrier.  The Psalmist is persistent in his prayer to God.

Psalm 80:1 For the choir director; set to El Shoshannim; Eduth. A Psalm of Asaph. Oh, give ear, Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock; You who are enthroned above the cherubim, shine forth!
2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up Your power And come to save us!
3 O God, restore us And cause Your face to shine upon us, and we will be saved.
4 O LORD God of hosts, How long will You be angry with the prayer of Your people?
5 You have fed them with the bread of tears, And You have made them to drink tears in large measure.
6 You make us an object of contention to our neighbors, And our enemies laugh among themselves.
7 O God of hosts, restore us And cause Your face to shine upon us, and we will be saved.
8 You removed a vine from Egypt; You drove out the nations and planted it.
9 You cleared the ground before it, And it took deep root and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with its shadow, And the cedars of God with its boughs.
11 It was sending out its branches to the sea And its shoots to the River.
12 Why have You broken down its hedges, So that all who pass that way pick its fruit?
13 A boar from the forest eats it away And whatever moves in the field feeds on it.
14 O God of hosts, turn again now, we beseech You; Look down from heaven and see, and take care of this vine,
15 Even the shoot which Your right hand has planted, And on the son whom You have strengthened for Yourself.
16 It is burned with fire, it is cut down; They perish at the rebuke of Your countenance.
17 Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand, Upon the son of man whom You made strong for Yourself.
18 Then we shall not turn back from You; Revive us, and we will call upon Your name.
19 O LORD God of hosts, restore us; Cause Your face to shine upon us, and we will be saved. (Psa 80:1-19 NASB)

Again this sounds like a request for revival, for a great awakening among the people.  If we want God’s face to shine on us, I think we too must become men and women of consistent prayer, asking, even begging if need be that God will cleanse us, make us holy and most of all, send a great revival upon us and upon the land.

I closing I recommend that the reader check these articles on prayer and revival.  The first is by the old Scotsman, Robert Murray M’Cheyne.  http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/ref-rev/01-4/1-4_mccheyne.pdf

The second article is by Roger Nicole  http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/ref-rev/01-3/1-3_nicole.pdf

The following are quotations on the meaning of Revival  from Iain H Murray, Revival and Revivalism: The Making and Marring of American Evangelicalism 1750-1858

There are eras, said (Samuel) Davies, when only a large communication or outpouring of the Spirit can produce a public general reformation. Thus, preaching on “The Happy Effect of the Pouring Out of the Spirit” from Isaiah 32:13-19, he argued that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is the great and only remedy for a ruined country– the only effectual preventative of national calamities and desolation and the only sure cause of a lasting and well-established peace. (p 21)

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In speaking of the meaning of revival it is also essential to note that what Davies and his brethren believed about revival was not something separate from, or additional to, their main beliefs; it was rather a necessary consequence.  Such is a man’s state in sin that he cannot be saved without the immediate results from it, the gifts of God.  Therefore, wherever conversions are multiplied, the cause is to be found not in men, nor in favorable conditions, but in the abundance of influences of th Spirit of God that alone make the testimony of the Church effective. No other explanation of revival is in harmony with the truths that are “the essence of the Christian scheme– the utter depravity of man, the sovereignly-free grace of Jehovah, the divinity of Christ, the atonement in his blood, regeneration, and sanctification by the Holy Spirit.

This school of preachers held that the Holy Spirit has appointed means to be used for the advancement of the gospel,  pre-eminently the teaching of the Word of God accompanied by earnest prayer.  Yet no human endeavors can ensure or guarantee results.  There is a sovereignty in all God’s actions.  He has never promised to bless in proportion to the activity of his people.  Revivals are not brought about by the fulfillment of “conditions” any more than the conversion of a single individual is secured by any series of human actions.  The special “seasons of mercy”  are determined in heaven.  Thus for a modern biographer of Davies to say what Blair “began a revival of religion in 1740″ is to assert the opposite of what they believed.  For the same reason it would have been obnoxious to these preachers to hear themselves described as “revivalists” . . .(p 22)

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. . . It can be further noted that what happens in revivals is not to be seen as something miraculously different from the regular experience of the church.  The difference lies in degree, not in kind.  In an “outpouring of the Spirit” spiritual influence is more widespread, convictions are deeper, and feelings more intense, but all this is only a heightening of normal Christianity.  True revivals are “extraordinary,” yet what is experienced at such times is not different in essence from the spiritual experience that belongs to Christians at other times.  It is the larger “earnest” of the same Spirit who abides with all who believe.

Thus Davies and his brethren repudiated the idea that revivals restore miraculous gifts to the churches.  They regarded revivals as more wonderful than that: The Spirit magnifies Christ, and the more abundantly his influence is possessed by the believers the more they will live for his praise.  When we meet with lives such as those of Davies, Whitefield (he had such a sense of the incomparable excellence of the person of Christ), Aaron Burr, Sr (a perpetual holocaust [a sacrifice consumed by fire] of adoration and praise, and many others in the revival period, we are tempted to suppose that theirs was a different Christianity.  It was not so but rather, as Thomas Murphy wrote, it was “the baptism of the Holy Ghost which caused the infant Church [in America] to become animated by the most fervent piety.”  The same writer said of these preachers: “they believed in refreshings from on high, felt some of them in their own souls, and were ready for still more . . . these bright and cultured souls were stirred to their very depths, and blessings untold were involved therein.  They awoke to a life not new in kind, but new in degree, and in all truth and soberness a new prospect opened before our Church and country.”

If revival is a larger giving to the church of grace already possessed– a heightening of the normal– then it follows that the evidences by which revivals are to be judged are the same as those which form the permanent evidences of real Christianity.  Foremost in the New Testament list is the evidence of love to God and men.  At all times to all true believers Christ “is precious.”   Preaching on those words, Davies said:

Because he loves him he longs for the full enjoyment of him . . . Because Christ is precious to him, his interests are so too, and he longs to see his kingdom flourish, and all men fired with his love.  Because he loves him, he loves his ordinances; loves to hear, because it is the word of Jesus; loves to pray, because it is maintaining intercourse with Jesus; loves to sit at his table, because it is a memorial of Jesus; and loves his people because they love Jesus.”

For revivals to be judged to be true we are to look for no greater proof than the increase of this same grace.  Love is not uniform in its strength but it knows many degrees.  Although it is an “active principle” in all Christians, love can also blaze and burn.  Men filled with the Spirit are filled with love (Eph. 3:16-19) and “the sacred fire of love” (to use Davies’ words) will affect al that they do.  They cannot be to others than fervent in spirit as well as dissatisfied with their own coldness. (p 23-24)

In the last few years I have become burdened with the need for personal spiritual awakening.  In discussions with our local pastors, I have discovered that this is a growing burden among my pastor friends.  The desire is not only for personal awakening but for our churches, especially for our churches.  But it also seems that our denominations all need to experience a Great Awakening.

Of course, I am most familiar with Southern Baptist Churches.  While we southern Baptists have been known for our growth and evangelism, some kind of death pall has come over us.  I was recently in a denominational meeting and the topic of the day was the demise of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).  In the last few years the International Missions Board of the SBC has suffered various doctoral issues.  But the biggest problem has been the North American Missions Board.  Money is down. Our collective number of baptisms are down. People have had to be laid off, missionary service has had to be postponed due to the lack of money. The seminaries have had to cut salaries and law off workers.  While the SBC is the largest protestant denomination in the United States, we are now easily ignored.  In fact, many Christian journals have set up a death watch to see when we will keel over.

The question is how can we fix it.  I do not think it can be fixed in the traditional sense.  No commission or study is going to give us a solution.   While my analysis may be a bit amateurish, I think we can clearly see the problem if we want and learn about a possible solution.

Baptists use to be plain people, ordinary working men and women.  We were far from the seats of power.  It would be true that in county seat churches, doctors, lawyers and local politicians would be members of local Baptist churches. Yet Baptists were largely engaged with local community ministry and foreign missions.

In the twentieth  century Southern Baptist had grown enough that leaders wanted to be part of the larger social and even political power group that wields influence in our country. I suppose that there is nothing wrong with this and may have even appeared as an act of providence.  But in serving God we are connected to the only seat of power needed to influence a nation.  Seeking to be power players can be a dangerous thing in that it causes us to forget utter reliance on God.  The result is that Southern Baptists became main street.  We were no longer just plain old people.  Now we have presidents who were Southern Baptists.  Southern Baptist pastors and leaders became nationally known figures.  We were caught up in our size, in the amount of money raised collectively for ministry, and most of all, public fame brought by being main street and being powerfully connected.  We were part of the rising new south and we had a big role to play.  I am convinced that our social success contributed to our decline.

A second factor can be found in our tendency to want to program everything.  If we have a problem, a need, or a want, someone will come up with a program to fix it.  Most of the programs came from our Sunday School Board, as it was called, now Lifeway.  Many came from the Home Missions Board, now NAMB. We borrowed from the business community our sense of organization and record keeping.  And these practices served us well.  It allowed to have a standard Sunday School and Discipleship program thus fulfilling the biblical mandate to teach Scripture, to teach discipleship including churchmanship, doctrine and history, to encourage fellowship and to do evangelism through these two programs.  These two programs gave us a uniformity as a denomination that one would not normally find in a non connectional church.

Being successful at Sunday School, we concluded that we needed a program for everything.  Evangelism, Stewardship, building and equipment, almost anything you could imagine.  Soon churches were trying to make one-size-fits-all programs work in their churches even thought most programs were written for larger churches.  The program approach stifled local creativity among church members and even encouraged them to be observers and not participants.

Often these programs were unitarian without thought given to doctrine. This is the third and perhaps most important factor.   We became impressed by size and numbers while we neglected based doctrine.  I am convinced that our efforts at evangelism, no matter how noble, resulted in churches being full of lost people who made emotional “decisions” instead of coming to faith in the incomparable Christ.  It became a routine matter for denominational leaders to claim that the purpose of the church is evangelism.  I heard this just this week.  Not only is it the only purpose of the church but we pastors need to repent if we disagreed with the speaker.  It is a kind of arrogance that says I know better because I am a denominational worker and you are a mere pastor.  The fact is, the purpose of the church is to glorify God and bring him honor by our holy living. But above all, the church brings honor and glory to God by faithfully worshiping him.   The pastor shepherds the flock.  Shepherding includes teaching them the things of God, helping the member to become mature believers. Thus, discipleship and fellowship are integral elements in the purpose of the Church.  When these things are done, the church will be self replicating, evangelism will be normal and natural.  But, no, we tend to listen to our “leaders” who know better.

Our literature has been so dumb-down that very little substance is found in it.  We have been too busy trying to accommodate the world that we have stopped teaching doctrine.  Baptist suffer from a lack of understanding of our basic doctrines.  No one really understands the sovereignty of God and his right to order the lives of his people according to his purposes.  We “accommodate” God by coming to church when it suits us and, for the most part, not paying attention to the things of God during the week. This latter behavior is being reinforced in local churches, often because they are following the latest trend and fad expressed by denominational leaders.

The same can be said for the doctrine of the church, the person of Christ, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and the doctrine of the atonement. Feelings have become the substitute for sound doctrine.  We lose members to cults, and defective churches because we have settled for the lowest common denominator instead of seeking to teach doctrine that leads to a mature Christian.

Finally, this needs to be said. We fought over various definitions of orthodoxy for 25 years and it left us weak and feeble in our practice of the faith.  I am not commenting on the necessity of that fight but the results.  The main argument was that there were many in the denomination who did not believe that the Bible was the inerrant, infallible Word of God.  The battle was won but if you survey the preaching and teaching done by many Southern Baptist pastors you would never know it.  Much of the preaching is topical.  The topics are often about finances, marriage and sex.  The drama of preaching has become more important than the words preached.  It is not unusual to see a stage with cars, motorcycles, beds, and others displays used to promote the subject of the sermon.  It is all entertaining and many men have become famous preachers for these kinds of tactics.  But the Word is not being preached, the kingdom of God is not being built.  No doubt the subjects of modern preaching are important, but we are called to proclaim Scripture not topics.  Expositional preaching is almost gone from many pulpits (if they have a pulpit) because the pastor is trying to imitate his favorite popular preacher.

Since the troubles we experienced in the Southern Baptist Convention, no national leader has risen up to lead us back to the important things.  Institutionalism is stronger than ever even though all the major Southern Baptist institutions are in trouble.  What has been forgotten is that it is all about the local church, not the denomination.  Ultimately the denomination is nothing.  When we get to heaven all there is going to be, is the local church, the Bride of Christ.   The principle was given by Christ himself, “for whoever wishes to save his life will lose it.”  Institutions take on a life of their own and they often forget why they exist.  Instead, they become concerned for their self existence, protecting jobs without regard to their original purpose.  If we want to save the institutions of the Convention, then they will have to give themselves away so to speak, and become servants to the local churches.

It is the reason that these things happened that is the most disturbing.  It happened, not because of the leadership of the Convention, but because of the wants and compromises of the local churches and the pastors who lead them.  We cannot put the blame on others. If the convention is in decline, it is because the churches are in decline.  That decline is more than numbers, it has to do with the spiritual vitality of the local churches.  We got from our denomination what we demanded.

I think the answer does not lie in the SBC or it’s leadership. No Great Commission study can solve our problems. It is evident that we need a Great Awakening on a national scale.  The great need for an awakening becomes even larger when we view the condition of the SBC in light of the health of local churches.  We must get back to our relationship with God that caused our existence in the first place.  No Great Awakening ever began on a denominational level.  No denominational leader has been at the heart of one.  Great Awakenings begin in churches and with small groups of people who are so disgusted with themselves that they turn to God to restore them.   Most likely if there is ever a Great Awakening in SBC life, it will begin in some small church or group of churches. If God allows an awakening to come, he will sovereignly move his church and if he allows, it will spread until it becomes a raging fire.  It will not be something that any man, any institution can claim to be the leader of or heralded as the one who started it.  Great Awakenings are always a sovereign work of God.  No doubt, God wants us to be right with him.  But it must begin at the top, which is the local church.

Recently a friend sent me this quote from Joe McKeever, “Something that has eluded religious historians and pastors for decades: ‘Why churches do not have revival.’ Insufficient prayer? Lack of godliness? Those are important, but are the symptoms, not the reason. The real reason for no revival is: we don’t want one. Revivals mess with your mind, rearrange your priorities, upset your lives. We prefer to be left alone. Agree?”  And yes, I agree.  But when our situation becomes so grim, when there is little life left in the church, we can no longer sit back and watch it all die.  We are compelled to fall before God and seek His life-giving Spirit for a dose of real revival.

It is my greatest desire to see the fires of a Great Awakening blow its way among our churches and revive our Convention and our state conventions.  I pray that before I die I will see such a movement.  I hope that we all find ourselves before God confessing our sin, begging God for his forgiveness and seeing the revival fires light up in the hearts of believers everywhere.  May God grant it to us.

Exodus 22:25 ¶ “If you lend money to My people, to the poor among you, you are not to act as a creditor to him; you shall not charge him interest.

Exodus 30:15 “The rich shall not pay more and the poor shall not pay less than the half shekel, when you give the contribution to the LORD to make atonement for yourselves.

Leviticus 14:21 ¶ “But if he is poor and his means are insufficient, then he is to take one male lamb for a guilt offering as a wave offering to make atonement for him, and one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering, and a log of oil,

Leviticus 19:15 ¶ ‘You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly.

Leviticus 25:25 ¶ ‘If a fellow countryman of yours becomes so poor he has to sell part of his property, then his nearest kinsman is to come and buy back what his relative has sold.
Leviticus 25:35 ¶ ‘Now in case a countryman of yours becomes poor and his means with regard to you falter, then you are to sustain him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you.

Leviticus 25:39 ¶ ‘If a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to you that he sells himself to you, you shall not subject him to a slave’s service.

Leviticus 25:47-50
47 ¶ ‘Now if the means of a stranger or of a sojourner with you becomes sufficient, and a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to him as to sell himself to a stranger who is sojourning with you, or to the descendants of a stranger’s family,
48 then he shall have redemption right after he has been sold. One of his brothers may redeem him,
49 or his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or one of his blood relatives from his family may redeem him; or if he prospers, he may redeem himself.
50 ‘He then with his purchaser shall calculate from the year when he sold himself to him up to the year of jubilee; and the price of his sale shall correspond to the number of years. It is like the days of a hired man that he shall be with him.

Deuteronomy 15:4-18
4 “However, there will be no poor among you, since the LORD will surely bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess,
5 if only you listen obediently to the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all this commandment which I am commanding you today.
6 “For the LORD your God will bless you as He has promised you, and you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; and you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.
7 ¶ “If there is a poor man with you, one of your brothers, in any of your towns in your land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother;
8 but you shall freely open your hand to him, and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.
9 “Beware that there is no base thought in your heart, saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of remission, is near,’ and your eye is hostile toward your poor brother, and you give him nothing; then he may cry to the LORD against you, and it will be a sin in you.
10 “You shall generously give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings.
11 “For the poor will never cease to be in the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.’
12 ¶ “If your kinsman, a Hebrew man or woman, is sold to you, then he shall serve you six years, but in the seventh year you shall set him free.
13 “When you set him free, you shall not send him away empty-handed.
14 “You shall furnish him liberally from your flock and from your threshing floor and from your wine vat; you shall give to him as the LORD your God has blessed you.
15 “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today.
16 “It shall come about if he says to you, ‘I will not go out from you,’ because he loves you and your household, since he fares well with you;
17 then you shall take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also you shall do likewise to your maidservant.
18 “It shall not seem hard to you when you set him free, for he has given you six years with double the service of a hired man; so the LORD your God will bless you in whatever you do.

Deuteronomy 24:10-15
10 ¶ “When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not enter his house to take his pledge.
11 “You shall remain outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you.
12 “If he is a poor man, you shall not sleep with his pledge.
13 “When the sun goes down you shall surely return the pledge to him, that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you; and it will be righteousness for you before the LORD your God.
14 ¶ “You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your countrymen or one of your aliens who is in your land in your towns.
15 “You shall give him his wages on his day before the sun sets, for he is poor and sets his heart on it; so that he will not cry against you to the LORD and it become sin in you.

1 Samuel 2:7-8
7 “The LORD makes poor and rich; He brings low, He also exalts.
8 “He raises the poor from the dust, He lifts the needy from the ash heap To make them sit with nobles, And inherit a seat of honor; For the pillars of the earth are the LORD’S, And He set the world on them.

Isaiah 3:14-17
14 The LORD enters into judgment with the elders and princes of His people, “It is you who have devoured the vineyard; The plunder of the poor is in your houses.
15 “What do you mean by crushing My people And grinding the face of the poor?” Declares the Lord GOD of hosts.
16 Moreover, the LORD said, “Because the daughters of Zion are proud And walk with heads held high and seductive eyes, And go along with mincing steps And tinkle the bangles on their feet,
17 Therefore the Lord will afflict the scalp of the daughters of Zion with scabs, And the LORD will make their foreheads bare.”

Isaiah 10:1-4
Isaiah 10:1 ¶ Woe to those who enact evil statutes And to those who constantly record unjust decisions,
2 So as to deprive the needy of justice And rob the poor of My people of their rights, So that widows may be their spoil And that they may plunder the orphans.
3 Now what will you do in the day of punishment, And in the devastation which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help? And where will you leave your wealth?
4 Nothing remains but to crouch among the captives Or fall among the slain. In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away And His hand is still stretched out.

Isaiah 11:4
4 But with righteousness He will judge the poor, And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.

Isaiah 58:1-7
hold back; Raise your voice like a trumpet, And declare to My people their transgression And to the house of Jacob their sins.
2 “Yet they seek Me day by day and delight to know My ways, As a nation that has done righteousness And has not forsaken the ordinance of their God. They ask Me for just decisions, They delight in the nearness of God.
3 ‘Why have we fasted and You do not see? Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?’ Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire, And drive hard all your workers.
4 “Behold, you fast for contention and strife and to strike with a wicked fist. You do not fast like you do today to make your voice heard on high.
5 “Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to humble himself? Is it for bowing one’s head like a reed And for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed? Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the LORD?
6 “Is this not the fast which I choose, To loosen the bonds of wickedness, To undo the bands of the yoke, And to let the oppressed go free And break every yoke?
7 “Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry And bring the homeless poor into the house; When you see the naked, to cover him; And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

Jeremiah 5:26-29
26 ‘For wicked men are found among My people, They watch like fowlers lying in wait; They set a trap, They catch men.
27 ‘Like a cage full of birds, So their houses are full of deceit; Therefore they have become great and rich.
28 ‘They are fat, they are sleek, They also excel in deeds of wickedness; They do not plead the cause, The cause of the orphan, that they may prosper; And they do not defend the rights of the poor.
29 ‘Shall I not punish these people?’ declares the LORD, ‘On a nation such as this Shall I not avenge Myself?’

Amos 4:1-3
Amos 4:1 Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who are on the mountain of Samaria, Who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, Who say to your husbands, “Bring now, that we may drink!”
2 The Lord GOD has sworn by His holiness, “Behold, the days are coming upon you When they will take you away with meat hooks, And the last of you with fish hooks.
3 “You will go out through breaches in the walls, Each one straight before her, And you will be cast to Harmon,” declares the LORD.

Amos 5:11-15
11 Therefore because you impose heavy rent on the poor And exact a tribute of grain from them, Though you have built houses of well-hewn stone, Yet you will not live in them; You have planted pleasant vineyards, yet you will not drink their wine.
12 For I know your transgressions are many and your sins are great, You who distress the righteous and accept bribes And turn aside the poor in the gate.
13 Therefore at such a time the prudent person keeps silent, for it is an evil time.
14 Seek good and not evil, that you may live; And thus may the LORD God of hosts be with you, Just as you have said!
15 Hate evil, love good, And establish justice in the gate! Perhaps the LORD God of hosts May be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

Zechariah 7:9-14
9 “Thus has the LORD of hosts said, ‘Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother;
10 and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’
11 “But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from hearing.
12 “They made their hearts like flint so that they could not hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the LORD of hosts.
13 “And just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen,” says the LORD of hosts;
14 “but I scattered them with a storm wind among all the nations whom they have not known. Thus the land is desolated behind them so that no one went back and forth, for they made the pleasant land desolate.”

Matthew 6:2-4
2 ¶ “So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
3 “But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
4 so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

Mark 12:41-44
41 ¶ And He sat down opposite the treasury, and began observing how the people were putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums.
42 A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent.
43 Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury;
44 for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.”

Luke 14:12-14
12 ¶ And He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment.
13 “But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,
14 and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

2 Corinthians 8:8-9
8 ¶ I am not speaking this as a command, but as proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity of your love also.
9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.

I first published this on another blog that I no longer use.  I have had some questions about pastoral work, so I thought I would republish it here.  The pastor may look different from age to age and in different cultures but the work of the pastor is biblically prescribed.  The pastor must conform to the biblical model or they will be a poor minister and do great injury to the Church.

What is a Pastor?

To understand the role and function of a pastor, one may begin by looking at the words used to label this ministry. The words used are Elder, presbuteros; Bishop or Overseer, episkope; and Pastor, poimen. By far the most used term in the New Testament is the word Elder. However, it is clear that all three words refer to the same office. Acts 20:28

Acts 20:28 “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. (NASB)

They are called Elders, (presbuteros) they have been made, by Holy Spirit, overseers, (episkope) and they are to shepherd (poimen) the church. . . .

The same observation can be made in I Peter 1:1-2.

1 Peter 5:1 Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed,
2 shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; (NASB)

Peter calls them elders (presbuteros) and commands them to shepherd (poimen) the flock of God among you, exercising oversight (episkope). All three elements, all three words are used in both passages and leaves little doubt that the three words refer to the same office.

What do the three words tell us? Elder (presbuteros) has a Hebrew background. The council of wise men who were to govern or go give advice were called Elders. Members of the local council of a city or community and the members of the Sanhedrin were both referred to as Elders. Both the Hebrew word zaqen and the Greek presbuteros, carry the idea of an older man, who is mature and wise. I think that we can gather from the meaning and usage of the word, that an elder is one who is to give wise council and leadership to those placed under his charge.

Overseer or Bishop comes from the Greek word episkope. According to the BDAG, the word means: 1. the act of watching over with special ref. to being present, visitation, of divine activity, 2. position of responsibility, position, assignment; 3. engagement in oversight, supervision.

According to the TDNT, the root of the episkope or episkopos, means to watch or to look out. It was used of gods who watched humans and was used in the sense of a divine visitation. The word came to be used in the form of episkopos for offices and positions of oversight. Civil officials were referred to as episkopos. It became a common word for various positions in the Greek world that had oversight over things and people. Episkopos comes to the New Testament as the Greek word that corresponds to the Hebrew idea of pesbuteros. It is one who has oversight, in this case, over a congregation.

The word poimen (shepherd) has a rich Old Testament history. It is used of those who care for sheep. They feed them, tend to them, protect them from harm. David was a shepherd and described God as Shepherd. And God is described as Shepherd in various ways in various Old Testament passages.

Based on the words used to describe the office, one can conclude that the one who holds this office is to be a man who is wise and mature, who is called by the Holy Spirit to oversee, to administrate, to, in some sense of the word, rule over a congregation as one who is a shepherd who feeds, takes care of and protects his charge.

While the words Bishop, Elder and Pastor refers to the same office, I tend to use the word Pastor simply because that is my Baptist tradition. For the remainder of this paper, I will use the word Pastor but any and all of the three are clearly meant.

The Character of a Pastor

The meaning of the terms, particularly the word Elder, reflects the character of the holder of the office. Wisdom and maturity are paramount characteristics of a Pastor. First Timothy 3:1-7 describes the character of the pastor. While these traits should be found among all mature Christians, it is imperative that the holder of the pastoral office be marked by them.

1 Timothy 3:1 It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do.
2 An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
3 not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money.
4 He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity
5 (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?),
6 and not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil.
7 And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. (NASB)

While much can be said about the character of the pastor, suffice it to say that he must be above reproach, mature, not a new convert, and one who manages his own household.

The Work of the Pastor.

The work of the pastor is varied and requires the mastery of a wide variety of fields. Some of the important texts in regard to the work of the pastor are as follows:

Acts 6
2 And the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables.
3 “But select from among you, brethren, seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task.
4 “But we will devote ourselves to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.”

NAS Acts 20:28 “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

I Timothy 4: 13 Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching.
14 Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed upon you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery.
15 Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress may be evident to all.
16 Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things; for as you do this you will insure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.

I Timothy 5: 17 Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.
18 For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing,” and “The laborer is worthy of his wages.”

2 Timothy 2:1 You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
2 And the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.
3 Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
4 No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.
5 And also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules.
6 The hard-working farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops.
7 Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.
8 Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel,
9 for which I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal; but the word of God is not imprisoned.
10 For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory.
11 It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him;
12 If we endure, we shall also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us;
13 If we are faithless, He remains faithful; for He cannot deny Himself.
14 Remind them of these things, and solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words, which is useless, and leads to the ruin of the hearers.
15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.

NAS 2 Timothy 4:1 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom:
2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires;
4 and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.
5 But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Ephesians 4:11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,
12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;
13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ.
14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;
15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ,
16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

From these texts, one can see that the pastor is to give his attention to the issues of prayer and ministry of the Word. He is to preach and teach the Word and be ready to do so in season and out of season. Furthermore, we are to reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. And we are to minister in this manner because a time will come when men will not endure sound instruction. It is the pastor’s job to not be persuaded by fads and trends and the worldly wants of some. But he is to be prepared to teach and preach sound doctrine, even to the point of reproof and rebuke when those who are under his charge drift from the Scriptural norm. The pastor must be on guard that he is not carried away by the same trends but rather, guard his own heart as he consistently calls the people of God to repentance when they go astray. The pastor is the one who oversees the spiritual life of the congregation. He is to see to it that they are growing in holiness. He calls them to proper order when they go astray. The pastor protects the congregation from false doctrine, even those false teachers who arise from within the church. No other leader in the New Testament church has this burden laid on him.

Ephesians grammatically links the role of Pastor-teacher, though some dispute this. This does not mean that only pastors are teachers. However, it is the role and responsibility of the Pastor to teach. Fist Timothy 3 says that one of the qualifications of the Overseer is to be able to teach.

The pastor is to lead the church. The means and method of this leadership is found in First Peter:

1 Peter 5:2-3
2 shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness;
3 nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.

The pastor is to lead by persuasion and by example. The model for such leadership is Jesus himself. Pastors are to be true servant-leaders. Following the example and command of Jesus, the pastor does not exist to be served but to serve. He becomes the servant of all, according to the words of Jesus, those who would be great, become the servant of all.

The only model for pastoral leadership is that of a servant who leads his congregation by persuasion and example. He cannot ask people to do what he will not do or to become what he will not become. And while he is to lead in such gentle fashion, he is also, when necessary, to speak boldly the Word of God to reprove, rebuke, and exhort when necessary. A pastor cannot make people follow him. And he can no more make people act and behave a certain way than he can cause to moon to rise. Therefore, his leadership comes from his calling, his gifts, his character and from his commitment to the very Word that he is to teach and preach. The result of his ministry should be church whose members grow up into a mature man with Christ as our head. Fist and Second Timothy and Titus are instructions to young pastors on pastoral ministry. One should seek to understand these books if they are to have a biblical understanding of the role and work of those who hold the pastoral office.

The Church’s Responsibility to the Pastor

Hebrews 13: 17 calls for the church to follow its leaders. This followship is not absolute, in other words, if the pastor is misleading the congregation it should not follow him. But neither should he be pastor.

Hebrews 13:17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. (NASB)

The word for obey is a peitho. It is an imperative verb. It means to persuade, appeal to, be won over, and thus, to obey. It is not a word that tells us to be a robot but that we are to be persuaded and to trust the one who has persuaded us. In other words, obedience is not blind trust but trust in one who, by word, deed, and call, persuades us. The word for submit is hupeiko and it means to yield to someone’s authority. It must be remembered that such yielding is to one who is a servant leader to the congregation. The immediate purpose is so that they pastor may have joy in his labor. The work of the pastor can be like herding cats or leading an army. It all depends on the will of the church to follow the leadership of the pastor. And for the pastor, the work is hard and emotionally draining. This mutual labor of servant leadership and yielding to authority produces the harmony and peace that make it possible for both church and pastor to enjoy.

The congregation also has the responsibility to pay its pastor as one who makes his living from the Gospel. He, like a soldier, is not to be involved in the things of the world, but reserve himself for his pastoral work ( 2 Tim. 2:1-7) Furthermore, the church is commanded to pay and to pay double to those who teach well (1 Tim. 5:17-18 ). In other words, the pastor should give his life to the work of the church and the church should take care of his needs so that he may not be encumbered in his work. This does not mean that somehow the work of the bivocational pastor is wrong. There are times when a church cannot pay its pastor. Paul himself worked to support his ministry. But it should be recognized that it is not the ideal and a pastor in such circumstances cannot give himself to the church as one who labors full time.

The office of Elder, Bishop, Pastor is a God appointed office. It cannot be set aside because we think we can find a better way. The church is to give the pastor their attention as he instructs them. The Pastor must give himself to the study of the word so that he is not ashamed but rather approved before God. And no matter what modern forms may tempt us, the biblical pastor will always be the servant leader of the biblical church.

Cheap grace is grace without a price, grace without cost.  The essence of grace, we suppose is that the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing. . . . Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system.  it means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth. . . It means the justification of the sin without the sinner…. The world goes on in the same old way, and we are still sinners even in the best of life. . . Instead of following Christ, let the Christian enjoy the consolation of his grace!  That is what is meant by cheap grace, the grace that amounts to the justification of the sin without the justification of the repentant sinner who departs from sin and from whom sin departs.  Cheap grace is not the kind of forgiveness of sin which frees us from the toils of sin.  Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves.

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.  Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. (Cost of Discipleship, p. 45-47)

If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on the battle on all the battlefields besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point. (Martin Luther, cited in Francis Schaeffer, The God Who is There. P 11)

More than ever, we need clear, pointed thinking and sound, focused preaching.  We dare not pull the punch because the world does not like it or because someone might be hurt.  To not tell the truth in our sinful environment is to murder the soul those who need to hear the Word of God.  We need to understand that the condition of the sinner is grave and that every living human is a sinner.  It is not a popular subject but it is the truth.  And in order for us to escape the wrath of God and to find purpose and meaning in life one must know the truth.  So, we cannot stand by and agree with the world that sexual immorality is perfectly acceptable, that homosexuality is just another lifestyle, that lying is a perfect form of defense, that willful violation of God’s law means nothing.

We cannot, at any time, agree that sin ceases to be sin.  But, the truth can only be presented and defended from a position of humility and grace.  When we are bold in truth, it must be as one who knows he or she is a sinner who had no hope until Christ himself redeemed him.  We are all sinners telling our fellow sinners where to find grace.

Who Rules the Church?: Examining Congregational Leadership and Church Government

Who Rules the Church by Gerald P. Cowen is a very good book on the nature of the church. He is a Baptist and writes from a Biblical perspectiv Cowen is a New Testament Scholar and he makes his argument from Scripture before any appeal to tradition.  Cowen makes a very strong case for Elder/Pastor lead, congregational rule church as basic Baptist polity. It is well worth a reading in a day that seems very confused about the nature of the Church.