Paying Pastors, Church Buildings, and Weekly Sermons?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - This is Simply Cheating.
00:00:07.080 | Ben, a podcast listener writes in
00:00:09.380 | with a bundle of three questions,
00:00:11.080 | three for the price of one.
00:00:12.440 | Dear Pastor John, I recently came across a website
00:00:15.200 | titled We Are Church, which is Francis Chan's new calling
00:00:19.800 | in which we read the following question.
00:00:22.040 | If someone asked you to describe church
00:00:24.480 | using only the Bible, what would you say?
00:00:27.760 | Then it's explained that their church structure
00:00:30.040 | includes no salary for pastors,
00:00:32.780 | tithes and offerings are collected,
00:00:35.160 | but all the money is set aside for missions
00:00:36.880 | and people meet in homes.
00:00:38.600 | I have great respect for Chan, and I know you do too,
00:00:41.200 | but it forces me to ask three questions.
00:00:44.000 | One, is it biblical for a pastor
00:00:45.760 | to draw a salary from the church?
00:00:48.280 | Two, is it biblical for the church
00:00:50.320 | to gather together in church buildings?
00:00:52.800 | And three, is it biblical to use a weekly rhythm
00:00:55.920 | for sermons and preaching?
00:00:58.000 | - Well, let's just leave aside any specific person
00:01:01.920 | or website, I like Francis Chan a lot.
00:01:03.920 | I count him as a good friend.
00:01:05.340 | We've overlapped in lots of places, and I like him,
00:01:08.120 | and I don't wanna pick on him at all.
00:01:11.320 | So I'm just gonna pose the very specific question.
00:01:13.600 | Salary for pastors, question number one.
00:01:15.880 | Two, preach sermons as part of regular church service.
00:01:19.760 | Three, do it weekly.
00:01:21.040 | Are those biblical concepts?
00:01:23.860 | Number one, is it biblical for a pastor to draw a salary?
00:01:28.040 | Well, consider these three or four texts.
00:01:30.940 | 1 Timothy 5, 17, "Let the elders who rule well
00:01:34.880 | "be considered worthy of double honor,
00:01:37.640 | "especially those who labor in preaching and teaching."
00:01:40.360 | And I think that probably means those
00:01:41.960 | who are giving themselves to it a lot more than the others,
00:01:46.280 | maybe full-time.
00:01:48.040 | And then he says, "For the scripture says,"
00:01:50.720 | so this is the reason why you give double honor
00:01:52.700 | to those who labor in preaching and teaching.
00:01:54.200 | "For the scripture says, 'You must not muzzle an ox
00:01:58.900 | "'when it is treading out the grain,
00:02:01.160 | "'and the laborer deserves his wages.'"
00:02:05.960 | So part of the double honor seems to be payment,
00:02:10.960 | what the ox eats, payment for the fact
00:02:16.640 | that they are giving themselves to preaching and teaching
00:02:19.760 | rather than other gainful employment.
00:02:22.980 | Here's another one.
00:02:24.200 | This is from 1 Corinthians 9, 6-9.
00:02:28.380 | "Is it only Barnabas," Paul says,
00:02:30.480 | "Is it only Barnabas and I who have no right
00:02:34.500 | "to refrain from working for a living?"
00:02:37.900 | In other words, he's making the case
00:02:40.060 | that he and other ministers of the word have a right,
00:02:44.840 | given by the words of Jesus, we'll see,
00:02:47.940 | and the Old Testament, to refrain
00:02:51.200 | from other gainful employment in order to give himself
00:02:54.640 | to the ministry of the word.
00:02:55.640 | That's what he's arguing for.
00:02:57.460 | That right has been given to the preachers,
00:03:00.240 | to the ministers of the word.
00:03:02.160 | And then he goes on.
00:03:03.140 | "Who serves as a soldier at his own expense?
00:03:07.600 | "Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit?
00:03:11.660 | "Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?
00:03:16.500 | "Do I say these things on human authority?
00:03:19.400 | "Does not the law say the same?
00:03:21.320 | "For it is written in the law of Moses,
00:03:23.140 | "You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.
00:03:27.180 | "Is it for oxen that God is concerned?"
00:03:31.220 | So that's 1 Corinthians 9.
00:03:32.900 | And then Paul gets specific
00:03:35.660 | about where the money comes from.
00:03:36.800 | He says in Galatians 6, 6,
00:03:39.760 | "Let the one who is taught the word
00:03:43.160 | "share all good things with the one who teaches."
00:03:48.040 | So he's kind of working out the details
00:03:49.920 | of how the teacher who's giving himself
00:03:52.620 | not to gainful employment in the community,
00:03:55.040 | but rather to teaching and preaching the word of God
00:03:58.460 | would come by his food, his wherewithal.
00:04:02.920 | And then one more, Luke 10, 7.
00:04:05.800 | "Jesus sent his disciples out with these words,
00:04:09.060 | "Remain in the house eating and drinking what they provide
00:04:12.400 | "for the laborer deserves his wages."
00:04:15.120 | And that's what Paul quoted earlier in 1 Timothy 5.
00:04:19.280 | So I think the outworking of that statement,
00:04:21.880 | the laborer deserves his wages in the mouth of Jesus
00:04:24.960 | was to be carried into the early church as a warrant
00:04:28.240 | for why full-time people who labor in preaching
00:04:33.240 | and teaching should receive their resources from the church.
00:04:38.160 | So my answer is that yes, it is a biblical principle
00:04:43.160 | that paying a pastor is a good thing.
00:04:46.520 | Number two, "Is gathering together
00:04:49.160 | "for a weekly preaching of a sermon a biblical concept?"
00:04:54.160 | Well, I think the question is not weekly mainly,
00:04:58.640 | but is preaching part of the service a biblical idea?
00:05:03.640 | Now, every generation has its voices
00:05:08.100 | that cry down preaching and announce its demise
00:05:12.520 | and its unbiblical nature.
00:05:15.060 | I've been alive long enough to see two or three
00:05:18.080 | of these waves go through the church.
00:05:20.280 | For 2000 years, these voices have failed
00:05:25.280 | to undo the preciousness and power of preaching
00:05:29.560 | among the gathered people of God.
00:05:31.320 | Now, why is that?
00:05:32.240 | Why have all these recurrent naysayers
00:05:36.160 | never been able to remove preaching
00:05:40.840 | from the church as a whole?
00:05:42.900 | And I'll mention two reasons.
00:05:44.400 | One is that the New Testament distinguishes preaching
00:05:48.680 | from other forms of communication
00:05:50.380 | like teaching and discussion,
00:05:52.560 | and commands that preaching happen
00:05:57.360 | in the context of the church, not just the city square.
00:06:03.240 | 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17 is a very familiar text
00:06:07.760 | where Paul describes the inspiration of the scriptures
00:06:10.100 | and its value for teaching and godliness.
00:06:12.920 | And then, get rid of the chapter break,
00:06:15.400 | there's no break in the thinking,
00:06:17.080 | then Timothy is commanded with one of the most amazing
00:06:21.400 | and weighty introductions to preach the word like this.
00:06:26.240 | "I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus,
00:06:30.080 | "who is to judge the living and the dead,
00:06:31.820 | "and by his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word.
00:06:35.840 | "Be ready in season, out of season,
00:06:37.640 | "reprove, rebuke, exhort in complete patience and teaching."
00:06:41.760 | Now, the word preach, preach the word,
00:06:44.400 | keruxanton logon is not the same word as teaching,
00:06:49.400 | didache or didasco.
00:06:52.800 | It is the word for herald, a town crier,
00:06:57.640 | a herald of the word, announcer of the word.
00:07:01.860 | And the context is not in 2 Timothy,
00:07:05.740 | it's not evangelism on the street corner,
00:07:08.700 | but the church in need of doctrinal clarity
00:07:12.040 | and protection and teaching.
00:07:14.140 | That's where Timothy is told to preach the word.
00:07:18.140 | The other reason I think preaching lasts
00:07:22.060 | from generation to generation is that
00:07:25.020 | there is something about the nature of biblical truth.
00:07:28.680 | Indeed, I would say the nature of God and biblical truth
00:07:31.880 | and the gospel in particular,
00:07:33.740 | which presses the human soul to want preaching
00:07:38.240 | and to do preaching.
00:07:40.100 | There are glories in the gospel that are so wonderful,
00:07:44.600 | they create their own mode of communication.
00:07:47.680 | It's called preaching.
00:07:49.600 | They insist, these realities insist,
00:07:53.000 | they force themselves out into preaching.
00:07:57.100 | They resist being limited to mere teaching
00:08:01.700 | or discussion or sharing.
00:08:03.540 | They beg to be heralded.
00:08:06.400 | It's the nature of God and the nature of his truth
00:08:11.400 | that creates preaching in every generation.
00:08:15.520 | And as far as the last question goes about weekly,
00:08:18.080 | I don't know if that was being specifically asked or not,
00:08:20.960 | but I would say I think God would be fine
00:08:24.760 | with us worshiping every day and preaching every day,
00:08:28.920 | but that would probably not be a practicable
00:08:32.120 | or for a lifetime.
00:08:34.120 | Rather, there are glimpses in the New Testament,
00:08:38.000 | three of them at least,
00:08:39.720 | where the early church seemed to move the day
00:08:44.040 | of weekly worship from the last day of the week,
00:08:47.020 | the Sabbath, to the first day of the week,
00:08:49.320 | different from the Old Testament.
00:08:50.860 | And I think that's a pattern in order
00:08:52.720 | to honor the Lord's resurrection
00:08:56.080 | and then call it the Lord's day.
00:08:58.160 | For example, Acts 20, verse seven,
00:09:00.720 | "On the first day of the week,"
00:09:02.680 | the first day of the week,
00:09:04.040 | "we were gathered together to break bread."
00:09:06.000 | Or 1 Corinthians 16, two,
00:09:08.120 | "On the first day of the week,"
00:09:10.200 | each of you put aside something.
00:09:12.040 | And then in Revelation 110,
00:09:14.160 | "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day."
00:09:18.680 | So yes, pastor, salaries are biblical.
00:09:22.540 | Yes, preaching regularly in gathered worship is biblical.
00:09:27.460 | And yes, weekly, if possible,
00:09:31.260 | on the Lord's day would also be the way
00:09:33.980 | the apostles began to do it.
00:09:35.820 | - Excellent, thank you, Pastor John,
00:09:38.180 | for those three responses.
00:09:40.260 | And tomorrow we're gonna talk about the exodus
00:09:43.900 | of the nation Israel out of Egypt.
00:09:46.180 | This moment of deliverance really marks
00:09:49.360 | the centerpiece of redemptive history in the Old Testament.
00:09:52.500 | So just how key is it?
00:09:54.920 | We're gonna explore this fascinating biblical theme tomorrow.
00:09:58.540 | Until then, you can scan or search
00:10:00.040 | through all the episodes we've released over the years.
00:10:02.240 | And of course, you can scan those episodes really easily
00:10:04.680 | in the APJ app for Apple and Android devices,
00:10:07.040 | or also at our web home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:10:12.040 | I am your host, Tony Reinke.
00:10:14.360 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast.
00:10:16.960 | (upbeat music)
00:10:19.540 | (upbeat music)
00:10:22.120 | [BLANK_AUDIO]