(music) What should we think of flashy pastors? That's the question this Monday morning from a listener named Emily. Emily writes in to ask this, Pastor John, thank you for sharing your wisdom with us all on this podcast. Recently social media accounts have surfaced and gained quite a bit of attention which show numerous well-known pastors wearing extremely expensive and flashy clothes and shoes and watches, etc.

These accounts have raised controversy about whether these leaders are justified in doing this. Many say that they should be able to use the money they make however they please or that these items are gifts, but others are offended by their luxurious lifestyles and argue that regardless of how a pastor obtains these things, they should still be demonstrating humility and reverence towards their congregations and toward those who are struggling to simply survive.

Many think their lavish lifestyles discredit Christ. 1 Peter 3:3 seems to allude to this issue, but I'm curious Pastor John, what other text of Scripture speak to this and where do you stand on it all? Well, there's no question where I sympathize here. I mean my sympathies have been made clear over the years with regard to simplicity and wartime lifestyle.

I get angry when I see pastors flaunting their luxury as if it were a compelling testimony that Jesus is more satisfying than what money can buy. Baloney. It's appalling. So let me say loud and clear right off the bat, nobody is drawn to Jesus as the spiritual, saving, satisfying treasure of their souls.

By the luxurious lifestyle of those who supposedly preach the Word. Nobody. What people are drawn to in preachers who make much of their luxury is the hope of luxury. That's what they're drawn to, the hope of luxury. This is not Christianity. Christianity is to be drawn to a crucified and risen Savior whose greatness and beauty and worth in himself are so admirable and so satisfying that the heart cries out with the psalmist, Psalm 63, "The steadfast love of the Lord is better than life." Yes, and everything in this life.

You cannot commend the truth that Jesus is better than money by giving the impression that you live for money. A decisive turn happened in redemptive history with the coming of Jesus that makes it invalid to use the lavish temple of the Old Testament, the priestly robes, the gold-plated utensils, the lavish curtains as a model for contemporary church buildings or Christian living.

It's invalid. The Old Testament was by and large a come-see religion. Queen of Sheba was breathless at the wealth of Solomon. But the New Testament is largely a go-tell religion. Unlike the Old Testament, the Christian Church has no temple, no geographic center like Jerusalem, no ethnic identity like Jewishness, no theocentric civil structure that puts people to death for impieties.

We are a pilgrim people, exiles, refugees, scattered among the nations with the grand mission given by the Lord Jesus to make disciples of all the peoples of the world. And we're not done with that. This revolutionizes the way we think about money and use our resources. It all tends toward the simplicity of wartime living where we strategize to glorify God by finishing the Great Commission and evangelizing our cities and showing love to our neighbors.

The New Testament is relentless. It's amazing. Just read it. It is relentless in pushing us toward simplicity and economy for the sake of Christ and away from luxury and away from affluence and finery. For example, Luke 6 20, "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.

Woe to you rich, for you have received your consolation." Luke 8 14, "They are choked by the riches and pleasures of life." Luke 9 58, "The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." Luke 12 15, "A person's life does not consist in the possessions that he has." Matthew 6 19, "Don't lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven." Matthew 6 25, "Don't be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you should drink or your body, what you should put on is not life more than food and the body more than clothing." Luke 12 31, "Seek the kingdom.

These other things will be added." Luke 12 33, "Sell your possessions, give alms, provide yourselves with purses in heaven." Luke 14 33, "Whoever does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple." Luke 18 24, "How hard it will be for those who have riches to get into the kingdom of heaven." James 2 5, "Has not God chosen the poor in this world to be rich in faith?" That's the refrain over and over and over throughout the whole New Testament and even in those places, and there are only a few, where wealthy Christians are directly addressed.

Like 1 Timothy 6 17, the message is, "Be thankful to God for all of your legitimate enjoyments and be filled with good deeds for those who have greater need than you." In other words, there's just no encouragement anywhere in the New Testament that we should accumulate and accumulate or increase the symbols of our wealth, by what we wear, what we drive, where we live.

The man who builds bigger barns for what he doesn't need is a fool. He's a fool, Jesus says. The gist is this, "Be content with a relatively simple lifestyle." And I say relatively because I know that virtually all Americans are rich, period, because the rest of the world, two-thirds of the world, lives so close to the edge.

So I'm talking a relatively simple lifestyle, "And make as much money as you please and give what you don't need for the sake of the glory of Christ and the spread of the gospel and the care of the suffering." Most of the New Testament circles around, revolves around, three main concerns when it comes to teaching on money.

One, how to display the value of Christ and the gospel. Two, how to meet the needs of the lost and the suffering. Three, how to avoid the soul-destroying dangers of wealth. So just a word about each of those. How to display the value of Christ and the gospel. Paul said in Philippians 3, "I count everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." He wanted to live in such a way as to show that his heart was satisfied with Christ and not captured by the idol of greed.

So he worked with his hands rather than give any impression that he was fleecing the churches. 1 Thessalonians 2, 5, "We did not come to you with any pretext for greed." We weren't using our ministry as a cover-up for our love of money. To the elders in Ephesus, he said, "I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel.

You know that. I worked late at night to keep from being a burden on anybody." To the Corinthians, he said, "We are not like so many peddlers of God's Word." To Timothy, he said, "If we have food and clothing, we will be content." And then he just laid it down for all the pastors.

They must not be lovers of money. 1 Timothy 3, 3. Now the point of all those words was to remove every obstacle from believing the gospel and to show the superior worth of Christ over all earthly possessions and to set an example for the believers of self-denial and a happy embrace of sacrifice for the sake of love.

Because as Jesus said, "It is more blessed, it is more blessed to give than to receive." And anybody who's been walking with Jesus for any amount of time knows you're gonna be happier and sleep better at night the more generous you are, the less selfish you are. The second main concern of the New Testament and possessions is how to meet the needs of the lost and the suffering.

Jesus said, "Sell your possessions, give to the needy, provide yourselves with money bags that don't grow old, a treasure in the heavens." That's Luke 12, 33. Paul said, "Let the thief no longer steal, but let him labor doing honest work with his hands that he may have something to share with those in need." Isn't that amazing?

In other words, don't steal and don't just work to have. Work to have to give. Just the three levels, right? You can steal, you can work to have, you can work to have to give. And he says, "Go there, Christians. Go there. Live there. Live to give." Christians are going to inherit the entire world and everything in it.

Oh my goodness. We could spend a whole session on that. Yeah. 1 Corinthians 3.21. You have everything, Christian. You don't need to grasp for it now. You're gonna get it in a vapor's breath. This little world is gonna be over. The present world is lost without the gospel. Millions are suffering.

This is the age for radical generosity and sacrifice, not the age for luxurious living. Finally, number three, that last concern with possessions is how to avoid the soul-destroying dangers of wealth. Jesus says it's hard for the rich. To enter the kingdom of God. Luke 18.24. Paul said, "Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction." Oh goodness, how clear can Jesus and Paul be about the dangers of accumulation and accumulation?

So I say it again. It is appalling that those who claim to be faithful ministers of the Word of God would flaunt their luxuries. Just appalling. It turns Christ from a beautiful, all-satisfying Savior into a broker who gives us what we really want, money and comfort. Yeah, nothing but a broker of money and comfort.

Thank you, Pastor John. As Paul says, "For we are not like so many peddlers of God's Word." You mentioned this text, that's 2 Corinthians 2.17. That section, that whole section of 2 Corinthians 2 verses 12 to 17 is so rich when it comes to ministry. And on Wednesday, we're gonna return to it and ask, "Am I called to ministry?

Has God called you to the ministry? Is he calling you to the ministry?" Well, there are five tests in that text to discern a calling to ministry. We'll see them next time on Wednesday. I'm your host Tony Reinke, and we will see you then.