back to index2018-07-15 Paul's Defense of His Ministry Part 1
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...worship has not been restored, you missed the whole point of salvation. 00:00:12.000 |
That if your life is still lived with you at the center, and the whole point of your relationship with God 00:00:19.000 |
is what can God do for you, then the whole point of salvation, you missed the whole point. 00:00:25.000 |
You've entered the race, but you're running the whole opposite direction. 00:00:32.000 |
So lordship is central to what it means to be saved. 00:00:37.000 |
It is not one of many things that Christians should know. 00:00:41.000 |
Because to be restored into a proper relationship with God is to be restored as worshipers of God, not ourselves. 00:00:51.000 |
And that's how he concluded the text, concluded his message. 00:00:56.000 |
So for the next chapter and a half, what is he going to talk about? 00:00:59.000 |
He's done, should be, we're done, goodbye, see you later, right? 00:01:03.000 |
Well for the next chapter and a half, he's going to be explaining about his own ministry. 00:01:08.000 |
Why he wrote what he wrote, what his intentions are, and he basically is going to be giving an exposition of his ministry itself. 00:01:18.000 |
Typically we would think that somebody would begin the letter like that, right? 00:01:22.000 |
They begin the letter and say, "This is why I'm writing to you, and this is how I'm going to speak to you, 00:01:25.000 |
and this is what I'm going to say," and then he would say it, but Paul says it at the end of his letter, right? 00:01:29.000 |
And so we have to be careful that we don't read the last chapter and a half thinking, 00:01:34.000 |
"It's a postscript, and he's just saying bye, so we don't need to pay much close attention." 00:01:38.000 |
But in fact, what Paul says in the last chapter and a half really reveals the application in his own life. 00:01:47.000 |
The application of everything that Paul has been teaching and encouraging the churches to practice, 00:01:54.000 |
it's a revelation of Paul himself practicing it in his own life. 00:01:58.000 |
So what I'm going to start today is going to go on, obviously, for maybe a couple of months, describing Paul's ministry. 00:02:06.000 |
And so in particular, verse 14 through 21 is a defense of Paul's ministry. 00:02:12.000 |
Why did he write this letter? How did he write it? Why is he doing what he is doing? 00:02:16.000 |
And so, again, there's about four or five things that he mentions in this text. 00:02:21.000 |
I thought we were going to take two weeks, but it's going to take at least three weeks to get through this text. 00:02:28.000 |
I want to read a quote from J.I. Packer, and it's from his book, "The Little Book on the Word of God." 00:02:36.000 |
This is what he says, "Certainly about the great issues of Christian faith and conduct is lacking all along the line. 00:02:44.000 |
The outside observer sees us as staggering on from a gimmick to gimmick, stunt to stunt like so many drunks in a fog, 00:02:53.000 |
not knowing at all where we are or which way we should be going. 00:02:58.000 |
Preaching is hazy, heads are muddled, hearts fret, doubts drain strength, uncertainty paralyzes action. 00:03:08.000 |
Unlike the first century Christians who in three centuries won the Roman world, 00:03:12.000 |
and those later Christians who pioneered the Reformation and the Puritan awakening and the Evangelical revival 00:03:18.000 |
and the great missionary movement of the last century, we lack certainty." 00:03:25.000 |
We have to admit that we live in a culture where everything is okay unless you're certain about something. 00:03:33.000 |
It's arrogant to speak with any kind of authority, any kind of certainty. 00:03:38.000 |
And sad to say that's true even in the church. You can hold on to your doctrines, but don't be too strong. 00:03:45.000 |
Don't speak with certainty. So we live in a culture where if you really love Christ, that we're accepting of everything. 00:03:55.000 |
And as a result of that, we have strayed away from the doctrines of the scripture, 00:04:00.000 |
and we have, like, you can hold on to your opinions, but you don't be too strong on anything. 00:04:05.000 |
And as a result of that, what J. I. Packer describes of haziness in our doctrines, 00:04:11.000 |
haziness in understanding our faith, and as a result of this confusion as to what the Word of God says, 00:04:22.000 |
So when you're not certain about something, when you're not convicted about something, 00:04:27.000 |
it naturally, the fruit that it produces is uncertainty. 00:04:32.000 |
That's why we have Christians who profess to believe, but very few who are actually committed. 00:04:40.000 |
Because to say, "I am committed to this," oh, that's his personality. 00:04:43.000 |
You know, he has that way, or he goes to this church, or he does that. 00:04:46.000 |
But to be convicted about something, naturally you get criticism. 00:04:50.000 |
That guy's self-righteous. He's judgmental, or maybe this or that, and kind of, you know, 00:04:55.000 |
the pressure is to come to the middle where everything is okay. 00:04:58.000 |
And sad to say, that's kind of like the culture that you and I live in. 00:05:03.000 |
You can belong to a church, you can belong to a denomination, you can be active at church, 00:05:07.000 |
and you can do all these things, but don't speak with absolute certainty about anything. 00:05:12.000 |
Because if you do, you're self-righteous. You're proud. 00:05:18.000 |
Paul, in describing his own ministry, he says in verse 15 and 16, 00:05:24.000 |
"But on some of these points that I have written to you, very boldly, by way of reminder, 00:05:33.000 |
Paul describes what he says. He said, "I spoke to you boldly for a reason." 00:05:39.000 |
The first thing that we want to understand about Paul's writings and all the doctrines that he says, 00:05:45.000 |
there is absolute certainty with what Paul is saying. 00:05:47.000 |
Paul doesn't say, you know, "Here are some suggestions. These are things that I think are true." 00:05:53.000 |
He said, "I'm writing these things. Even the things that may make you feel uncomfortable. 00:06:02.000 |
And the reason why he's able to speak so boldly, he states it in verse 15 and 16, he says, 00:06:07.000 |
"I speak boldly in reminder because, one, grace was given to me by God." 00:06:13.000 |
In other words, Paul was absolutely certain that what he is saying is because God told him to say it. 00:06:22.000 |
It is not just regurgitation of information. It's not because I read some books and I went to seminary, 00:06:28.000 |
so I learned these truths, and so I'm going to take what I have learned and I'm going to disseminate it to you. 00:06:33.000 |
Paul says, no, he is absolutely convinced that he is speaking for God. 00:06:37.000 |
The words coming out of his mouth represents God himself. 00:06:41.000 |
You can't be an ambassador to the UN with uncertainty. 00:06:46.000 |
You can't say that I'm an ambassador to the United States and say, "What does America think about this?" 00:06:51.000 |
Well, you know, they think this and we think that, and this is my opinion. 00:06:55.000 |
Then you can't be an ambassador. An ambassador has to be certain where he stands. 00:07:00.000 |
An ambassador has to be certain what the president desires to say, and he's just simply a mouthpiece. 00:07:06.000 |
Paul's certainty came from knowing that his calling was from God. 00:07:11.000 |
Secondly, he says to be a minister of Christ, that he was called from God for the purpose of representing Christ. 00:07:24.000 |
His primary goal is not to be overly concerned about his listeners. 00:07:32.000 |
Now, that may sound weird to some of you, you know, 00:07:36.000 |
but I'm going to say that my primary goal as a pastor is not to make sure that all of you want to hear me. 00:07:46.000 |
I am very aware that there's some things that I say that some of you are not going to like. 00:07:54.000 |
But my primary concern is not how you will respond to what is said. 00:07:59.000 |
My primary concern is, am I saying what Jesus would say if he was standing up on his pulpit? 00:08:06.000 |
So Paul says, "My calling is from God, so therefore he's a minister of Christ, first and foremost." 00:08:11.000 |
Every once in a while, I would get somebody who tells me that I don't think my non-Christian friends would be comfortable at this church. 00:08:20.000 |
Now, I have no intention of deliberately making non-Christians uncomfortable. 00:08:27.000 |
I don't want to deliberately use big words, dispensationalism and hypostatic union of Christ. 00:08:35.000 |
There's no need for me to sound with high vocabulary and confuse people. 00:08:42.000 |
But the primary goal of the church is not to make non-Christians feel comfortable in the church. 00:08:51.000 |
The church was called to be distinct from the world. 00:08:56.000 |
The problem that you and I get into in our generation is that we are so concerned about being distinct from the world 00:09:05.000 |
that more and more you can't tell the difference between Christian and non-Christian. 00:09:11.000 |
Nobody ever travels to different countries and complain that the country that you are at is different than the country that you came from. 00:09:21.000 |
You don't go to Japan and say, "You know what? Japan doesn't look anything like the United States. 00:09:25.000 |
I don't think I'll ever come back here again." 00:09:28.000 |
Because there's that understanding that when you enter into their world, their culture, that there's going to be different things. 00:09:35.000 |
You don't travel to Kenya and say, "You know what? The food tastes so different." 00:09:41.000 |
You don't go in there and the leaders of Japan and leaders of different countries say, 00:09:45.000 |
"You know what? We want Americans to feel comfortable where we're at, so we're going to change our food to make sure that they're comfortable where we're at." 00:09:52.000 |
We expect when we travel to different kingdoms, different countries, that there's going to be distinct things about them. 00:09:59.000 |
When non-Christians come into the church, they are entering into a different kingdom where Christ rules. 00:10:08.000 |
Satan has rule over the entertainment, over the values, over the direction of the world. 00:10:14.000 |
So if they enter into a church body of Christ where Christ is the head of the church, there should be distinction. 00:10:26.000 |
And as a result of this culture shock, to open their eyes to see the god that we worship. 00:10:34.000 |
See, Paul says he speaks with boldness and clarity because he's clear who he serves. 00:10:42.000 |
And as a result of that, he says he's a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. 00:10:46.000 |
He recognizes that God has called him specifically for them. 00:10:50.000 |
He didn't only preach to the Gentiles, but he represents Christ to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God. 00:11:01.000 |
Again, in our churches, if we're not careful, we can be a self-help instructional place where people who are having hard times raising kids 00:11:11.000 |
and how to be a good mother, how to be a good father, how to organize your family, how to reach the poor and do social justice. 00:11:17.000 |
And all of these things are good things that the scripture teaches. 00:11:21.000 |
But the primary calling of the church is to preach the gospel. 00:11:24.000 |
To bring sinners to repentance and reconcile them to the holy God. 00:11:32.000 |
He called us as Christians to be concerned for the poor. 00:11:36.000 |
Our primary calling is not to make a community of people who care about each other and raise our children together. 00:11:43.000 |
All of these things are byproducts of people who have been reconciled to God. 00:11:48.000 |
But the primary calling of the church is to reconcile sinners, to bring them to repentance, 00:11:59.000 |
To preach the gospel. In season and out of season. 00:12:03.000 |
That's why Paul speaks with such clarity, with such boldness. 00:12:07.000 |
He does not apologize about anything that he says. 00:12:10.000 |
2 Timothy 1.7, "For God gave us a spirit not of fear or timidity, but of power and love and self-control." 00:12:18.000 |
The reason why he writes that is because Timothy, when Paul is writing the second letter to Timothy, 00:12:24.000 |
the spiritual environment has changed drastically from the first time he was in prison in Philippians. 00:12:31.000 |
In Philippians he says, "I thank God for my imprisonment because it has emboldened other brothers to preach the word of God more boldly." 00:12:39.000 |
And so it was actually producing more boldness in other people. 00:12:43.000 |
But by the time he's writing 2 Timothy, he's writing this last letter, and people are beginning to fall out. 00:12:49.000 |
Even his fellow companions who are with him suffering for the gospel saw that Apostle Paul was waiting for death to come, 00:12:57.000 |
and some of them were starting to return back. 00:13:00.000 |
And he's writing to this young protege, telling Timothy, concerned that he might fall into this fear. 00:13:08.000 |
And he's reminding them, commending him, challenging him, that the spirit that leads you back into your old life is not from God. 00:13:16.000 |
God called us, and he gave us a spirit, not a spirit of fear or of timidity, but of power and of love and self-control. 00:13:26.000 |
You always hear from people saying, "You know, we need to get back to the early church. We need to be like the book of Acts." 00:13:34.000 |
One of the primary characteristics of the early church was boldness, clarity. 00:13:40.000 |
In Acts 4.13, after Peter and John gives their testimony about Christ preaching the gospel, this is what they said. 00:13:48.000 |
"Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John..." 00:13:51.000 |
I mean, think about everything that they could have observed about Peter's preaching. 00:13:56.000 |
It was clear, he exposited the Old Testament. 00:14:00.000 |
But of all the things that they could have said, after being convicted about the Word, he said, "Wow, they were amazed by his boldness." 00:14:09.000 |
They were amazed by his boldness, how he spoke with authority. 00:14:14.000 |
And they perceived that they were uneducated, common men. 00:14:17.000 |
So in other words, their boldness did not come from education. 00:14:21.000 |
Their boldness did not come because they went to some specific schools and got an MDiv or a PhD. 00:14:27.000 |
Or from their many experiences, they were raised in a priestly home. 00:14:33.000 |
They said they had no connection whatsoever from the religious order of that time. 00:14:46.000 |
They said, "And they recognized that they had been with Jesus." 00:14:54.000 |
What made these men and their preaching and their lives so powerful is their proximity to Christ. 00:15:04.000 |
He said, "I speak with boldness because God called me to be a minister of Christ to the Gentiles for the preaching of the Gospel." 00:15:13.000 |
Peter and John is standing in the presence of the same people who cried out and wanted to crucify Christ. 00:15:20.000 |
He's standing before the leaders of Israel who had the authority to put him in jail, beat them, and possibly crucify them as well. 00:15:29.000 |
What gave them this boldness that even they were willing to even give their life? 00:15:35.000 |
And they recognized that they were with Jesus. 00:15:38.000 |
Acts 4, 31, "And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, 00:15:44.000 |
and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness." 00:15:51.000 |
Their proximity to Jesus and the filling of the Holy Spirit immediately led to boldness, clarity, conviction. 00:16:00.000 |
Acts 13, 46, "And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, 'It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you.'" 00:16:10.000 |
So over and over again, if you read the book of Acts, it is the movement of the Holy Spirit as it empowers people to speak with boldness. 00:16:19.000 |
God has ordained the preaching of his word, the foolishness of preaching, to bring about the salvation of the lost. 00:16:31.000 |
It is not just things that you have read that you are transferring for somebody else. 00:16:34.000 |
It is the boldness that is accompanied by the presence of the Holy Spirit. 00:16:39.000 |
That is what the early church was characterized by. 00:16:41.000 |
And that is what Paul says. He says, "I am preaching to you with clarity and boldness because this is from God." 00:16:49.000 |
Most of Paul's letters, he writes with the introduction, "A bond slave of Jesus Christ." 00:16:57.000 |
So I remember early on when I would read that, I thought, "Oh, Apostle Paul is humbling himself." 00:17:03.000 |
He is trying to serve the church, and he is saying, "I am a bond servant of Jesus Christ, so I am here to serve you." 00:17:08.000 |
And I realized, the more I studied the text, that though, yes, Apostle Paul recognizes that he is a servant of Christ, 00:17:16.000 |
but the reason why he calls himself the bond servant or the slave of Jesus Christ is to establish authority in that letter. 00:17:26.000 |
This is not an opinion of many experiences, and he tried this and tried that, and he found that these things work. 00:17:32.000 |
So I am writing these things to you because I know better than you. 00:17:37.000 |
Instead, Paul establishes authority right from the beginning of the letter, saying, "Listen to what I have to say because it is coming from Christ himself." 00:17:47.000 |
And that is why he is able to speak with such boldness. 00:17:54.000 |
Galatians 1.10, it says, "For I am, am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? 00:18:00.000 |
Am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ." 00:18:06.000 |
Those of you who know the content of the book of Galatians, Paul is writing to a church, 00:18:12.000 |
not just one church, but many churches in that area, because of Judaizers were coming in and they were trying to mix the gospel with the Jewish laws. 00:18:24.000 |
And so Paul begins the letter by saying, "If anyone preaches a different gospel, other than what you already know, let him be anathema, let him be condemned." 00:18:32.000 |
In other words, it is a modern way of saying, "Let him go to hell." 00:18:35.000 |
It is the harshest statement that he can say. 00:18:39.000 |
But the reason why he writes Galatians 1.10 is because he was rebuking Peter and Barnabas by name, publicly. 00:18:47.000 |
If there was any two people that Apostle Paul may have been tempted to compromise in order to not cause conflict and embarrassment, 00:19:01.000 |
Because Barnabas was Apostle Paul's mentor in the beginning, when everybody else was like, 00:19:06.000 |
"How can that guy who was just a few months ago trying to kill everybody, how can he be now preaching the gospel?" 00:19:15.000 |
So even the people who saw Jesus resurrected from the dead had a hard time believing that his conversion was real. 00:19:27.000 |
So Barnabas was the first one who stood up and he said, "I can testify that his conversion is real." 00:19:33.000 |
So Barnabas was the first guy who stood up for him to be accepted in the church. 00:19:37.000 |
So if there was anybody that he would have been tempted to compromise the gospel for, it would have been Barnabas. 00:19:43.000 |
If there was a second person he would have been tempted, it would have been Peter. 00:19:46.000 |
Because he knew if he got on the other side of Peter, he could have had the whole early church turn against Apostle Paul. 00:19:54.000 |
Because Peter was a leader among the apostles. 00:19:57.000 |
Who was this latecomer who was about to kill us and now he's calling Peter out, embarrassing him, 00:20:06.000 |
He says in Galatians that Peter and Barnabas were being affected by the Judaizers coming from Jerusalem 00:20:12.000 |
and they refused to sit with the Gentiles and would only eat with the Jews, confusing the gospel. 00:20:18.000 |
That the lines, the hostility between Jews and Gentiles has been abolished by the blood of Christ and now we are one. 00:20:25.000 |
But because of their action, because of their compromise, the gospel is being compromised. 00:20:34.000 |
If we are more concerned about the opinion of man, we are automatically disqualified. 00:20:44.000 |
If we are more concerned about if I say this will more people come, we are disqualified. 00:20:49.000 |
If I say this, will people leave the church, then we are disqualified. 00:20:58.000 |
Are we convicted of the things that we profess or is it enough that you just sing the songs? 00:21:04.000 |
Is it enough that you are just part of the church? 00:21:08.000 |
See, when we are hazy and our convictions aren't strong, it's enough to just belong to the right church. 00:21:16.000 |
To sit under a man of conviction rather than being convicted yourself. 00:21:23.000 |
But when we are clear, when we are convicted, when we are certain that this is from God, it leads to boldness. 00:21:34.000 |
Now let me give an encouragement and a warning at the same time. 00:21:40.000 |
Let me just sidetrack for a second because whenever we say this, we can easily apply it in the wrong way. 00:21:51.000 |
We named ourselves Berean Community Church for a reason. 00:21:54.000 |
Because as you guys know, that Bereans were commended for testing what Paul was saying to see if it was scriptural. 00:22:02.000 |
So right off the bat, we wanted to make sure that the authority is established in the word of God. 00:22:08.000 |
I don't want ever for anybody in our church, for my words to be the final authority. 00:22:15.000 |
If you ever get in an argument and you say, "But Pastor Peter said this." 00:22:20.000 |
Don't ever think that I'm like, "Hmm, they're quoting me?" 00:22:29.000 |
The whole purpose of why we named ourselves Berean Community Church is because we want you to test the leaders. 00:22:37.000 |
So the final authority isn't what does the church believe. 00:22:42.000 |
What does it matter what the church believes? What do you believe? 00:22:48.000 |
So that whatever conversations that we have, whatever conflict that we have, that we make sure that it's a biblical conversation. 00:22:55.000 |
That quoting leadership doesn't end that conversation. 00:23:02.000 |
If our church is going to be where Christ is the head of the church, and our church is going to have convictions, 00:23:08.000 |
that you do not coattail, you do not just get on the train just because I'm convicted. 00:23:14.000 |
You need to be convicted. You need to see what the word of God says. 00:23:20.000 |
But the other part of caution, one is don't let your authority come from the leadership. 00:23:29.000 |
But the warning is don't let your authority come from yourself either. 00:23:34.000 |
Where we, our danger could be that we have all kinds of thoughts and opinions, 00:23:41.000 |
and we want this and we want that, and don't let that be from you either. 00:23:47.000 |
Not from your experience, not from your personality, not from your intellect, not from your education. 00:23:57.000 |
That's why Jesus says, "Before you judge others, make sure you take out the log out of your eyes, 00:24:04.000 |
so you can see clearly the speck in someone else's eye." 00:24:08.000 |
In other words, if we're not right with God, if we're not saturated with his words, 00:24:17.000 |
So we want a church that debates and has conversations and have Bible studies centered around what is the meaning of the text, 00:24:26.000 |
but we want to make sure that whatever conversation we're having, that the end conclusion is the text. 00:24:31.000 |
End conclusion is what he is saying, not my opinions. 00:24:42.000 |
We need to be a church, not just from the pulpit, but congregation who is committed to the truth themselves. 00:24:50.000 |
Jeremiah 14, 13-15, Jeremiah says, "O sovereign Lord, the prophets keep telling them, 00:24:56.000 |
'You will not see the sword or suffer famine. Indeed, I will give you lasting peace in this place.'" 00:25:01.000 |
Why were the false prophets telling them this? 00:25:05.000 |
Because who wants to go and tell a bunch of people that judgment is coming, 00:25:10.000 |
that if you don't turn from your sins, that judgment is coming, because that's the message that God gave Jeremiah. 00:25:15.000 |
And the reason why he's preaching peace is because he is more concerned about their opinion and what they think of him 00:25:26.000 |
And so the common message of the false prophets was to tickle their ear, to encourage them, to strengthen them. 00:25:34.000 |
Verse 14, "And the Lord said to me, 'The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. 00:25:39.000 |
I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. 00:25:44.000 |
They are prophesying to you false visions, divination, idolatries, and delusions of their own minds. 00:25:51.000 |
Therefore, this is what the Lord says about the prophets who are prophesying in my name, 00:25:55.000 |
I did not send them, yet they are saying, 'No sword or famine will touch this land. 00:26:00.000 |
Those same prophets will perish by sword and famine.'" 00:26:05.000 |
The reason why there's fuzziness, there's reason why there's haziness and lack of conviction 00:26:10.000 |
is because, again, at that time, because these false prophets were there to tickle their ears. 00:26:16.000 |
Again, you and I have to admit, we are living in a generation that in order for the Protestant churches to succeed, 00:26:23.000 |
we need to gather as many people into the room and pay their tithes so we can grow. 00:26:34.000 |
But the danger behind all of that, the way that the church is being established today, 00:26:42.000 |
Today, if somebody wants to go into ministry, and this is very typical, 00:26:46.000 |
this is not an extraordinary way somebody comes into ministry. 00:26:51.000 |
You go short-term missions, you get convicted, or you're active in campus ministry, 00:26:56.000 |
and so you really enjoyed what you did, and so you unilaterally decide, 00:27:02.000 |
maybe opinion of a few of your friends, decide to go into ministry. 00:27:07.000 |
And so you choose to go and you apply for a seminary, 00:27:10.000 |
and seminary, the threshold of getting into seminary is pretty low. 00:27:18.000 |
You don't need to be an A+ student to be a seminary student. 00:27:25.000 |
You could be a C-, C-, maybe a D if you know what to say, right? 00:27:32.000 |
But it's just basically they'll accept you. You got money, they'll accept you, basically. 00:27:42.000 |
You can get in. Basically, if you want to get in, you can get in. 00:27:47.000 |
When's the last time you met somebody that got rejected from seminary? 00:27:57.000 |
You decide to go, you go into seminary, and then you start studying. 00:28:01.000 |
Some are good students, some are not good students, right? 00:28:03.000 |
But once you enter, there's plenty of churches who are in need, right? 00:28:08.000 |
You have youth groups, and you have children's ministry, college ministry. 00:28:12.000 |
We have more churches than pastors who can fill the role. 00:28:15.000 |
So if you happen to be in seminary, because so few people want to be full-time ministers 00:28:22.000 |
So even to do that, you have to have some kind of sacrifice. 00:28:25.000 |
So if you're willing to sacrifice, then you come into ministry, and then you become a pastor. 00:28:31.000 |
Because as soon as you have one class under your belt, you're a pastor. 00:28:37.000 |
And then once you enter in and you become a pastor, you're no different than John Piper. 00:28:43.000 |
Because you're standing up on, at least to your authority, 00:28:46.000 |
in front of people who don't know much of Scripture, whatever you say goes. 00:28:49.000 |
And then typically what happens, you become a pastor, but he never went through any kind of filtering. 00:28:58.000 |
Because some men's sins are obvious, some men's sins trail behind them. 00:29:02.000 |
So I'm not saying that everybody who enters into ministry that way are all bad, 00:29:12.000 |
And so if you want to get ordained, all you have to do is say, "Hey, I want to get ordained," and you get tested. 00:29:18.000 |
And so if you were a C+ student, you can pass an ordination, 00:29:23.000 |
because most denominations have a board of elders that will test you. 00:29:28.000 |
They say, "These are the facts that you need to know." 00:29:30.000 |
They were already tested, or they wouldn't have graduated seminary. 00:29:32.000 |
So all they have to do is answer these questions and get a decent grade, and you're ordained. 00:29:37.000 |
And so once you get ordained, you have authority to speak the Word of God. 00:29:43.000 |
So that's typically--I'm not telling you like an extraordinary way that somebody comes into ministry. 00:29:48.000 |
Nine out of ten people who come into ministry come into ministry through those channels, 00:29:56.000 |
And because the church is sick, anybody who wants to can easily become a pastor. 00:30:02.000 |
So it's kind of like, well, we hope that they do well. 00:30:08.000 |
We hope that they're not coming to please man. 00:30:11.000 |
But the truth is a lot of people come through these doors simply because they wanted to, period. 00:30:20.000 |
When the Scripture clearly says not to lay hands hastily, 00:30:24.000 |
because some mentions are obvious that everybody is going to see and say, "Why? That guy is going to be in ministry?" 00:30:29.000 |
And then some mentions trail behind them, like when they are tested. 00:30:35.000 |
You can see their flaws, and clearly they shouldn't represent God in that way. 00:30:41.000 |
And so he says to warn them that if you lay hands hastily, that you will participate in their sin, and you will also be guilty. 00:30:52.000 |
The way that someone enters into ministry, there are a lot of people who shouldn't be up in the pulpit. 00:30:59.000 |
There are a lot of people, a lot of churches. 00:31:02.000 |
Again, my goal is not to paint the picture of despair in the churches. 00:31:09.000 |
But when the Scripture says these false prophets are running, 00:31:12.000 |
and they are saying what people want to hear because they want to have a successful church, 00:31:20.000 |
and as a result of that, they will distort and say and do whatever it takes to be successful. 00:31:32.000 |
Paul's boldness came from clear guidance that God sent him for the purpose of ministering in Christ to the Gentiles in preaching the gospel. 00:31:44.000 |
He was handpicked by Christ, and that's why he was able to speak with such boldness. 00:31:49.000 |
In Jeremiah 6.14, the false prophets are described that they have healed the wound of my people lightly, 00:31:56.000 |
saying, "Peace, peace, when there is no peace." 00:32:03.000 |
He's not talking about hardships in raising children. 00:32:14.000 |
He says these false prophets are looking at the sin and the judgment that they're under, 00:32:18.000 |
and instead of warning them for their sins, their wounds, he's treating it lightly. 00:32:23.000 |
Basically putting a band-aid over their cancer, and making them feel better, and telling them everything is okay. 00:32:31.000 |
Part of the reason why the affection for Christ is hazy is because the way that the gospel is being preached today. 00:32:41.000 |
See, the reason why these false prophets were being convicted and under the judgment of God 00:32:48.000 |
is because the primary purpose of the church is to bring unrepentant sinners to repent and to be reconciled to a holy God. 00:32:57.000 |
It is not people who are lonely, who need community, that that's why he established the church. 00:33:03.000 |
He didn't establish the church because there's a lot of hungry people that need to be fed. 00:33:07.000 |
He didn't establish the church because the world is filled with orphans that need to be adopted. 00:33:12.000 |
He didn't establish the church because it's hard living and we have financial problems to deal with that issue. 00:33:18.000 |
All of these things are a byproduct of people who are saved, but the primary reason why Christ came 00:33:28.000 |
Everything that he did, everything that he said was for that purpose. 00:33:34.000 |
See, when the gospel is presented properly, it brings sinners to their knees. 00:33:44.000 |
When a church is filled with people who want Christ, but doesn't need him. 00:33:50.000 |
You have a church filled with people who are singing songs, regurgitating information, attending Bible study, but never fully committed. 00:34:00.000 |
Never fully committed, because it is enough for people who are half convicted to just listen to good messages. 00:34:13.000 |
It is enough to be in the community of people who are doing the right things. 00:34:19.000 |
But when we are convicted of this truth, it brings to every single person, including myself, on our knees desperate for a Savior. 00:34:29.000 |
Desperate for a Savior. That's the purpose of Paul's letter. 00:34:34.000 |
He said, "I write these things with boldness, because life and death was on the line." 00:34:41.000 |
He wasn't just simply covering over their cancer with band-aid. 00:34:46.000 |
Even though it hurts, this pain is good for the sinners. 00:34:52.000 |
When people are convicted over their sins, they may not like what they hear, and at times they picked up stones to stone him. 00:35:00.000 |
He never held back this message, because he was dealing with cancer, not a cut. 00:35:06.000 |
That's where his boldness came from. Clarity, conviction, his proximity to Christ and to the Holy Spirit. 00:35:15.000 |
Until you and I are connected with the Savior, we will always be satisfied with someone else's testimony. 00:35:27.000 |
We just regurgitate, "Oh, my pastor said this, these people went there, and I read a story about this." 00:35:32.000 |
But it's never our testimony. It's never about us. 00:35:38.000 |
We're not witnesses for Christ. We're witnesses of witnesses of Christ. 00:35:55.000 |
That's where our boldness and conviction comes from. 00:36:00.000 |
"Ah, he said to me, 'Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels who have rebelled against me. 00:36:06.000 |
They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. 00:36:10.000 |
The descendants also are impudent and stubborn. 00:36:13.000 |
I send you to them, and you shall say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God.' 00:36:17.000 |
And whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house, 00:36:21.000 |
they will know that a prophet has been among them." 00:36:27.000 |
He calls Ezekiel to a stubborn nation, obstinate, impudent. 00:36:36.000 |
And then he says, "Whether they hear or refuse to hear." 00:36:40.000 |
Now, does God know that they're not going to listen to him? 00:36:54.000 |
"Who will go for me and represent me and speak on my behalf?" 00:36:57.000 |
And Isaiah nobly says, "I will go. Here am I. Send me." 00:37:01.000 |
And then God says, "Go to these people who are stubborn, stiff-necked. 00:37:05.000 |
He said, "What? How long? I'll put in my time." 00:37:09.000 |
A year, two years? When are they going to repent? 00:37:17.000 |
Why go through all that drama of showing your kingdom 00:37:19.000 |
and cleansing my mouth so that I can be your mouthpiece 00:37:27.000 |
You know, the very first temptation that I ran into in ministry was this. 00:37:39.000 |
I was a youth pastor and started with five youth group kids, 00:37:49.000 |
And then I went to Oron Baptist, and I was in a youth group, 00:37:52.000 |
and it started with 30-something, and then it grew to about 70, 80. 00:37:55.000 |
And then they transferred me to the college ministry. 00:37:57.000 |
It started with 15, and at one point it grew to almost 100 people. 00:38:04.000 |
And I started getting support from the parents, 00:38:10.000 |
our children who didn't want to come to church are now coming to church. 00:38:13.000 |
And at one point, our church was the biggest college ministry. 00:38:19.000 |
Those of you guys who know this, Bethel Church, 00:38:23.000 |
So ours was the biggest English ministry in this area for two reasons. 00:38:28.000 |
One, our church was known to be a sports church. 00:38:34.000 |
So annually we had a volleyball tournament, and our church dominated 00:38:38.000 |
because we had all the varsity volleyball players 00:38:44.000 |
So we had the best setter, we had the best spiker, 00:38:48.000 |
And then we built the outside basketball court, full court, 00:38:51.000 |
and we would finish service, go out and get lunch, 00:38:59.000 |
or else you're going to have to wait three games to play a game. 00:39:01.000 |
So we would play anywhere from 1 p.m. to sometimes 8 o'clock 00:39:11.000 |
So we attracted all these guys who were interested in sports, 00:39:15.000 |
and then we had some attractive people at church. 00:39:17.000 |
That was the second reason, maybe the bigger reason. 00:39:20.000 |
We had some cheerleaders at Uni High School and Irvine High School, 00:39:23.000 |
and so a lot of these guys that I didn't see in worship, 00:39:29.000 |
And routinely I would have to ask them after church, "What are you doing here?" 00:39:38.000 |
But they were coming to church, so it was growing in number. 00:39:42.000 |
And so on the surface, it looked like, "Wow, great things are happening in church," 00:39:46.000 |
but then the more I looked into the church, it wasn't real fruit. 00:39:52.000 |
And the reason why I wasn't satisfied with that is because I grew up-- 00:40:02.000 |
At one point, my dad was a pastor of a large church out in Korea, 00:40:06.000 |
but he was also a pastor of a church of 30 or 40 members, 00:40:12.000 |
And I was around famous pastors, revival speakers, 00:40:17.000 |
people who were scholars who were professors and teaching at large seminaries. 00:40:20.000 |
So I was sitting in the back listening to all this and know all the drama in the church, 00:40:25.000 |
and I knew that so much of Christianity is just the presentation, 00:40:30.000 |
and that's part of the reason why I hated the church. 00:40:33.000 |
So when I began to see this in the church, it grieved me 00:40:37.000 |
that it looked great on the surface, but behind the scene, 00:40:40.000 |
people were telling me things like, "Hey, Peter, can you keep your sermon short? 00:40:48.000 |
And it was genuine advice, concern that they figured out how to do ministry. 00:40:56.000 |
There's easy way to double the attendance of this church. 00:41:04.000 |
That's the first thing, because I've heard so many people who refuse to come to our church 00:41:11.000 |
So if I kept it around 25 minutes, I know it would attract a lot of your friends, 00:41:16.000 |
because I've been told that, so I'm very aware of that. 00:41:20.000 |
Don't be too strong in your sermon, because it makes people feel uncomfortable. 00:41:24.000 |
I've had people stand up in the middle of the service and just leave, 00:41:28.000 |
and I know why they were leaving. They weren't going to the bathroom. 00:41:34.000 |
So I know, keep it light, encourage them. Life is hard. 00:41:38.000 |
So they want to come to church and be encouraged. 00:41:40.000 |
And again, there's nothing innately wrong with all of that. 00:41:45.000 |
But I was so frustrated, even at the peak of ministry, 00:41:51.000 |
when the numbers were growing, because it wasn't what I wanted to see. 00:41:55.000 |
And I began to feel like I was more of a recreational leader than a minister of God. 00:42:02.000 |
And so I was starting to wrestle with this. Why do I really want to do this? 00:42:06.000 |
I've seen what my mom went through. I've seen what our family went through, 00:42:11.000 |
It's one thing to sacrifice to see real fruit. 00:42:26.000 |
And there was a period when street preaching was a regular part of our life. 00:42:34.000 |
And street preach in parades, on campus, in classrooms. 00:42:41.000 |
And so the first youth group that I led at Irvine Baptist, 00:42:45.000 |
I used to take them in front of Irvine High School and have them preach. 00:42:50.000 |
They would stand in a corner, and when their friends would go during lunchtime, 00:42:53.000 |
they would stand and they would preach the gospel. 00:42:55.000 |
And for two reasons. One, I wanted them to preach the gospel. 00:42:58.000 |
I was kind of training them to be bold in preaching the gospel. 00:43:01.000 |
The second reason was so that they would never be able to embrace this world. 00:43:06.000 |
Because you can't be cool after you preached in front of your friends. 00:43:14.000 |
So they would have no option but to embrace Jesus after that. 00:43:19.000 |
So, you know, Elder Joe, he was one of those students. 00:43:22.000 |
There he is right there. So he remembers. Right? 00:43:28.000 |
And you get an immediate response, but the total byproduct wasn't what I wanted. 00:43:37.000 |
And I don't know how many times I discussed with Esther, 00:43:44.000 |
It's one thing to sacrifice to see noble end. 00:43:47.000 |
It's another thing to sacrifice and then have nothing. 00:43:56.000 |
Are you in ministry because you want to see the byproduct or are you my servant? 00:44:06.000 |
We all want to be Apostle Paul and sacrifice, 00:44:10.000 |
even die in the context of preaching the gospel, establishing churches, 00:44:18.000 |
And all his ministry, he wept and then he died. 00:44:22.000 |
And then after he died, they said, oh, he was the real prophet. 00:44:30.000 |
God called Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah to preach the word in season and out of season 00:44:38.000 |
because their calling was not to get people to come. 00:44:44.000 |
Their calling was to represent Christ, to say what he would say. 00:44:51.000 |
Verse 6, "And you, son of man, be not afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words. 00:44:55.000 |
Though briars and thorns are with you, and you sit on scorpions, 00:44:59.000 |
be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks. 00:45:03.000 |
For they are a rebellious house, and you shall speak my words to them, 00:45:06.000 |
whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house." 00:45:11.000 |
And I'll tell you that this is probably the most important lesson that I learned as a pastor. 00:45:18.000 |
I will preach the same thing and in the same way, 00:45:23.000 |
and there are times when people come and they want to listen. 00:45:28.000 |
I have preached the same thing in the same way, 00:45:31.000 |
and people refuse to come to church for the same sermons. 00:45:39.000 |
For the most part, for the last 20-some years, my preaching has been the same. 00:45:43.000 |
And I've seen fruit, and I've seen people refuse to come for the same sermon. 00:45:51.000 |
But I have not been called to build a large church. 00:45:55.000 |
I have not been called to build a small church. 00:45:59.000 |
I've been called to speak his word and to do it faithfully. 00:46:04.000 |
And there are times when it will be in season, 00:46:07.000 |
and there will be times when it is not in season. 00:46:15.000 |
See, boldness comes from conviction, and I had to repent of that. 00:46:21.000 |
I had to repent, because when I decided to go into ministry, I thought I was surrendered. 00:46:27.000 |
And it revealed to me when I was frustrated in ministry that I wasn't. 00:46:31.000 |
I had my own thoughts of what ministry should look like, and when it didn't, I wanted to quit. 00:46:35.000 |
But if I'm a servant of God, I'm his conduit for what he desires to do, 00:46:44.000 |
And he says, verse 8, "But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. 00:46:49.000 |
Be not rebellious like that rebellious house. 00:46:57.000 |
Before you are sent out, you need to know what the word of God says. 00:47:02.000 |
Look at this scroll. Read it. Meditate on it. Eat it. Digest it. 00:47:05.000 |
"When I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me, and behold, a scroll of a book was in it, 00:47:10.000 |
and he spread it before me, and it had writing on the front and on the back, 00:47:14.000 |
and there were written on it words of lamentation, mourning, and woe." 00:47:18.000 |
Every time God calls people to preach, and when I say preach, I'm not talking about here.