By Ray Stedman, Peninsula Bible Church, Palo Alto, CA.
Delivered at the first Congress on the Bible, San Diego, 1982
Thank you very much. I too am sorry that we don't have more
time to cover what I think is an extremely important subject,
and one that takes a good deal more time than what we have had
to allot to it. But if I can just stir up your pure minds by way
of remembrance, and get you started, there are tremendous things
that can be done by a deep commitment of the will to become a
preacher, a workman who needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing
the word of truth. That's what we're called to do.
I mentioned yesterday and the day before that we publish our messages
every week. They come in this form; they are printed; the message
that is delivered one Sunday will be in the racks in our church
entrance on the next Sunday. And so people are used to picking
them up. And then we mail these out all over the world to those
who ask to be on our mailing list. I meant to bring along a tablet
and circulate it; if someone would loan me a couple of sheets
of paper to start one on each side I would appreciate it. And
just let people fill out their names and addresses if you'd like
to be on this mailing list. There is no set fee for doing so,
though at the first mailing you will receive an explanatory mailing
informing you of what the costs are to us, and inviting you to
give as the Lord lays on your heart. We make it perfectly freewill,
and those who can't afford to do so are welcome to receive them
anyhow. In the first mailing you will receive a catalog of all
the back messages, and then you are welcome to order those as
you like. This one I have up here -- and I'll leave these up here
for you to look over at the end of the series today -- for the
most part there is a brief 5-message series on Psalm 77, and then
there are some of the messages that were delivered on 1 Timothy,
including that very knotty problem about women's ministry, called
"Adam's rib or women's lib?" and you can pick that up
too if you like. So after people have looked at them if you'd
like to have them you are welcome.
This hour I want to go back to the passage with which we originally
began, which as I said has been to me a great guideline on the
ministry. In the 4th chapter of 1 Corinthians the apostle is describing
his own ministry. Now you could hardly ask for a better model
of a preacher and teacher than the apostle Paul. The impact of
that remarkable ministry is with us yet today. This is the man
who in the providence of God and in the grace of God has changed
history in every generation since he lived. And he did it by the
power of the message that he spoke. This is that secret and hidden
wisdom of God, which contains within it the lost secrets of our
humanity. These truths when known by and practiced by men and
women will bring them out of their brokenness and fragmentation
and hurt and emptiness, into wholeness of life, and fulfill or
produce the intended glory of humanity. Now I believe that with
all my heart. I believe this is the business of the church --
to instruct the minds of the people, first of all by the preaching
and teaching of the word as to what these secrets are -- God's
view of life -- because God's view is reality. And when you begin
live biblically, you may for the first time begin to deal with
life realistically. It is the world that is confused and following
pipe dreams and illusions, and not even knowing their illusions.
And it is the business of the preacher to so understand the scriptures
under the illumination of the Holy Spirit and by diligent effort
in his own study to be able to impart to the people the truths
that will dispel the illusions and produce fruitful humanity.
This is a confused age in which we live, you know that. Somebody
has well said, "If you're not confused today, then you're
not thinking clearly." And how do you get people to thinking
clearly? Well, by getting them to think like God thinks! He is
the ultimate realist; he never deceives himself or anyone else.
He always deals absolutely realistically with everything. That's
why therefore the business of preaching is such an important calling
-- because it is correcting all the confusion and the illusion
around about us.
Now we looked in the passage at two words the apostle uses to
describe the ministry: servants of Christ, and stewards of the
mysteries of God. And in our first study we tried to explore what
is meant by a steward of the mysteries of God. I've just briefly
reviewed what we said along that line. Now I'd like to turn to
the first of the words which I will handle secondly in order,
as the apostle himself does in this passage: servants of Christ.
If the steward, and what the apostle says about that is discussing
the responsibility of a preacher or teacher, then the word "servant"
which he employs is discussing the accountability of a preacher
or teacher: whom does he answer to? Who is responsible for him?
Now as many of you know I'm sure, the word that is employed here
is a rather infrequently used word, it is not doulos (or
douloi in the plural), a bondslave, but it is the word
huperetes, the under-rower. It derives its meaning from
the military life of the Roman empire, notably the warships, the
war galleys of the Romans, which as we're told in that ancient
world had a low deck just a foot or so above the water, and there
were the seats of the rowers, the slaves, who were for the most
part chained to their seats. They were impressed into servitude,
many of them educated people, captives who had been taken by the
Roman armies. If you've seen the picture -- isn't it "The
Robe?" -- you have a vivid description of Ben Hur who served
as such an oarsman. And then in a slightly raised deck at the
prow of the ship where every rower could see him was the director,
or the captain. And it was he who gave orders to the rowers. And
they had to instantly obey his orders because this was a warship.
They couldn't depend on the winds to maneuver the ship in battle
-- they were too uncertain, they didn't blow in the right direction,
it took too long to change the sails -- and so in battle they
used the oarsmen. And the ship had to stop suddenly, back up even,
turn to the right or left, and be very maneuverable. And therefore
the duty of the oarsmen was to instantly obey the word of the
captain.
Now that is the word that describes a servant of Christ, a preacher
or teacher of the word of God. He is to take his orders from the
captain, who of course is clearly stated to be Christ, the Lord
Jesus himself. He tells us what we are to say. We are not to get
it from Time Magazine, although we can use that as illustrative
material, we are not to get it from any other source, especially
we are not to take it from the secular convictions around us,
because they are the very thing we are warned against, the wisdom
of the world. Human knowledge, as we saw before, is perfectly
acceptable to the believer, and we are encouraged to explore every
dimension and every channel of human thought these days, and use
it as we will. But how is it put to practical work? That is where
wisdom comes in, and human wisdom does not lead men to God. In
fact, it leads him to make, as we have ample demonstration on
every side today, the most atrocious blunders that result in human
misery and degradation and dehumanization and the glutting of
our city streets and the polluting of our atmosphere and our rivers
and all these things, and the failure to properly distribute food
throughout the earth -- that's all the result of human wisdom.
And everywhere the word of God challenges the wisdom of the world.
It is the business of preaching, you see, to set forth the wisdom
of God.
Now, we are to keep our eyes, therefore, upon the captain. And
the figure which is employed here is particularly emphasizing
the singleness of purpose of a preacher, the one from whom alone
he takes his orders. And the apostle now goes on to develop this
in the passage that follows. He is writing to these Corinthians
who, like everyone else, were anxious to tell him how he should
conduct his ministry. When you are dealing with the accountability
of a preacher, every one of us has discovered that there are hundreds
of volunteers who offer themselves in this capacity. And we have
to be aware of that fact, and the apostle even suffered from this
phenomenon. And he writes to them these rather startling words:
"But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged
by you." I imagine that was a very popular verse in Corinth.
I imagine that they printed it on little cards and put it up on
their refrigerator to remember. Memorize. It is a very small thing,
said the apostle, that I should ever be judged by you. No, they
must have felt very offended when he wrote this. But he wrote
it nevertheless. "Or by any human court." Literally,
it is "by man's day." I do not even judge myself, he
says. I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not
thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do
not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes,
who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and
will disclose the purposes of the heart. And then every man will
receive his commendation from God."
Now in that passage there are stated clearly four possibilities
of judgment of a preacher's ministry and message. The apostle
recognizes them, lists them here for us, and they constitute subtle
or very open pressures upon him to influence what it is he teaches.
I think it very instructive that we have these clearly in mind.
The first one we could call congregational evaluation. That is
the pressure upon the preacher. Every congregation has certain
methods by which it either covertly or overtly puts pressure on
the preacher to change his message. And this he needs to be aware
of. Now, as we have seen, Paul's declaration on that is that's
at the bottom of my list, he said. I pay least attention to that.
It is a very small thing. You know, it is amazing, isn't it, that
we listen sometimes to people who are suffering from spiritual
malnutrition and indigestion and various other complications and
diseases, and expect them to analyze their own problems and prescribe
for their own disease. Now no doctor would allow that. A good
doctor never listens to the patients' analysis of what's wrong
with him. Now he may listen, but he doesn't really give heed to
it. He must trust his own superior medical knowledge. Now I grant
you that doctors are human beings, and they can make mistakes,
and sometimes because doctors do not take adequate time to analyze
the patient may be right and the doctor wrong. But in general
no doctor expects the patient to analyze the disease. And when
we are preaching the word of God -- the healing word to a hurting
congregation -- we must not expect the congregation to analyze
what it needs. It is God who analyses. That is why Paul says,
"It is a very small thing that I should be judged by you."
My good friend and dear friend Stuart Briscoe, whom many of you
know -- he's right now up in the Bay Area preaching while I am
down here -- pastor of the Elmbrook Church outside of Milwaukee
Wisconsin -- has pointed out that there are three major ways by
which congregational pressure comes upon the preacher. He calls
them adulation, which swells the head, and manipulation, which
ties the hands, and opposition which breaks the heart. And I am
sure there is no teacher or preacher here who hasn't experienced
these.
Adulation, which swells the head. When I was a young preacher
in Palo Alto, there was a woman in our congregation, a very remarkable
person. She had a fixation on the color purple. She only dressed
in purple. I have never seen her in any other color. She had her
house painted purple, and she actually dyed her cat purple. And
so she was known in our congregation as Mrs Purple. She was a
Texan originally, a very outspoken, forthright women; she used
to stand up in the meetings of the congregation at times and say,
"I am a woman of very few words, but I use them all the time."
She did indeed. She was a wealthy woman, and a very generous woman.
And for some reason because I blessed her heart in some of my
earlier messages she took a liking to me. And she used to feed
me a line of propaganda about what a great preacher I was that
was very difficult for me to handle. She used to come up to me
at the end of a message with tears running down her face -- this
was never a put on with her at all. It was always real. But with
tears running down her face, she would say, "Oh, Mr Stedman!"
(She was the only one in our congregation who ever called me that
-- most of them call me Ray, which is fine with me, but she called
me Mr Stedman.) "Oh, Mr Stedman! You can make the truth so
simple, and so clear. What a marvelous preacher you are!"
And I just took that all in. I thought it was wonderful. I had
forgotten that there was a doctor in our congregation that I used
to play golf with. And one day I asked him. "Doc," I
said, "What is the most remarkable thing that you have ever
discovered about the human anatomy in your medical practice?"
And I've never forgotten his words -- I didn't expect them. He
said, "Well, the most remarkable thing I've ever discovered
is that when you pat it on the back the head swells up."
And I am afraid this happened to me. Now what made it more difficult
was that this woman had several very pronounced opinions about
the Scriptures. She didn't like the theme of death at all. She
was one of those people who ran from the word death. She didn't
want death talked about, she didn't want any references to funerals
or burials or any form of dying or death. She was a relatively
young Christian, and many suffer from that. And I found myself
finally paying heed to that. I found myself downplaying the themes
of death when I came to them in the Scripture, and passing over
them lightly and saying very little about death. She didn't like
pain or suffering, and I found myself on occasion watering down
passages that dealt with the fact that Christian were called to
suffer, for her sake. Until the Lord brought them to my attention
and I felt deeply convicted. I think the passage that set me free
was reading in the book of Galatians where the apostle says, "If
you then are a pleaser of men, then you are no longer a servant
of Christ." And dealing with that I had to face the fact
that I could not temper my message because of the adulation of
this dear woman. And I began to preach, and she didn't like some
of it, and she told me about it, but God also used those very
messages to change her mind about these themes. And by the end
of her life she had a totally different view of death and suffering.
Now there is adulation that swells the head, and there is manipulation
that ties the hands. Every preacher, especially every young preacher,
knows that in every congregation there is a built in power structure.
And it isn't always the official board. There are unofficial leaders
and bosses in church congregations who know how either by open
threat or by subtle implication to manipulate a preacher, to get
him to change his message, or avoid certain themes, or to come
on strong with a certain program. They are very good at it. I
don't want to be misunderstood here. Preachers are not to be bosses,
to be kings over their congregations. They are not to be the only
ones who consider what is preached -- elders are charged with
that responsibility as well. And there is a team play in the congregation
that is very important and very biblical, where the pastors and
elders together are to be continually seeking the mind of the
Lord. If I were to put my finger on what I would say is the greatest
weakness of the church in the world today, it would be the loss
of the sense of the immediate headship of Christ in the local
congregation. We think of Jesus as head of the church at large,
but it is very rarely that you run up against a church in which
the board, the elders, or leaders of the church really think that
Jesus in in their midst directing the activities and programs
of that church. Oh, we all pay lip service to that. But to really
expect him to give leadership, to answer questions, to open doors
-- that's a missing element in most congregations. But that's
what you read in the book of Acts everywhere you turn, isn't it?
The leadership, the overall strategy, the direction of the church,
came from the Spirit: "The Spirit said to the church at Antioch,
Separate unto me Paul and Barnabas for the work to which I have
called them." Now that is proper. But there can also be a
lot of improper manipulating, of pressure put upon pastors and
elders alike to follow traditional roles. Just like in the Lord's
days, the community of God is in the grip of much tradition that
people don't recognize as such, and are controlled by, which,
as Jesus said of the tradition of his day, substitutes itself
for the direction of God. He said, "You set aside the commands
of God and teach in their place the traditions of man." Now
every church board and every pastor must be continually examining
what the church does as to whether it is tradition or biblical.
And whether the tradition is one which reflects biblical principles
or not. Not all traditions are wrong. Tradition in itself is not
wrong. But it needs to be constantly evaluated. And the pastor
must be aware of this tendency on the part of people who instinctively
believe that the way they were brought up is the proper way to
run a church. Now we all suffer from that. And he has to be very
gentle and understanding when he deals with that kind of a problem.
But he must not allow himself to be manipulated by those who rest
upon tradition alone.
And then there is opposition which breaks the heart. I want to
tell you as I have traveled around this country and in many countries
of the world everywhere I go I run into wonderful, splendid young
preachers whose hearts are broken, who have been turned aside
from a most promising ministry by the callous, cruel treatment
they have received in the churches that have called thme. I run
into them all the time -- last week I met a young man who said,
"What would you do if you were in my place? What would you
do if your elders called you in and said to you, 'Look, you've
been here a year now. And we like a lot of your preaching, but
there are a couple of things we would like you to understand.
First, we want you to know this is our church, it is not yours.
We were here before you came, and we are going to be here when
you leave. And some of the things you are suggesting based upon
the Scriptures are not what we appreciate. We don't want them.
And this is our church, and you have to adjust to us, and not
we to you.'" That's what they said. And furthermore they
said, "We hired you to do the preaching here. You are our
employee, and you take directions from us as to what you do or
say in your official capacity as a pastor." Now, he said,
"What would you say to them?"
Well, I said, I'll tell you what I'd do. I would invite them,
I would say, "Fellows, we are going to have a board meeting
next Thursday night, whenever it would be. And would you please
bring your Bibles with you -- we're going to have a Bible study
before the meeting begins." And when the meeting started,
I said to him, I would take the Bible and say to them, "Now
I have been told that this church belongs to you men. You were
here before I came. Now I want you to open your Bibles and find
where it says the church belongs to the congregation or the elders.
Because I'd like to show you a verse where Jesus says, 'On this
rock, I will build my church. And the gates of hell will not prevail
against it.'" And it will be impossible for us to function
together until we understand this church is neither yours nor
mine; it belongs to the Lord Jesus. He has the right to tell us
how to function, what to believe, how to operate in various ways;
he has sent the apostles to tell us that our business is to study
this word and find out. (My heart said Hallelujah last night when
Ed Hill was telling us in that powerful way of his that he took
his church and sat down with the book, and they went through the
book together.) And furthermore I said, "I would tell them,
look. We need to get another thing clear. According to the Scriptures
a minister is not the hired employee of a church. Now I don't
care what the IRS says. A minister is not the hired employee --
he is a brother who has come to share together in the ministry
with them. And as brothers they all have input, all the leaders
together, following the direction of the Lord. But we must never
forget that the Lord Jesus himself in Matthew 23 verse 8 said
to his disciples, "All you are brothers and only one is your
master." You see, the idea that is widespread today that
the pastor has a unique kind of authority in the church is not
biblical. "One is your master; all you are brothers. "
And it is very important to establish these. Well, he said, "If
I did that, they would fire me!" And I said, "That may
well be true. You could very well lose this church over that.
You need to say it graciously, you need to say it gently, you
need to say it lovingly, you need to say, "I love this church,
I love you men, I have enjoyed being with you this year, I want
to continue. But until we understand the basis on which the Lord
himself establishes it, we can't work together." And you
must draw that line as a servant of Christ, you see.
Well, he did. He went back and told them and they fired him. But
he got another church just a few weeks later, and it's flourishing
and growing and abundantly manifesting the power and grace of
God. So there's congregational evaluation; Paul puts it at the
bottom of the list. And he says, "It is a very small thing
with me." Not because their opinion was not important to
him, he always listened to people -- in chapter 9 of this very
letter, he says, "This is my response to those who would
examine me." And he gives a very gracious answer to their
challenges and their problems. But he says, "They do not
ultimately determine what I am going to do or say."
Then there is what he lists as man's day, or what we would call
societal evaluation. Here is another subtle pressure upon the
preacher: Society, the opinion of the community in which you live.
It is amazing to watch the media today and see how evangelical
preachers appear in the media. It is very rare that you find any
approval. It is almost always either a kind of contempt, a thinly
veiled disdain of them, or occasionally a kind of gentle toleration
of them, as the village idiots. You know, you don't attack an
idiot, you just treat him nicely and quietly and let him go his
way. And most protestant evangelicals appear in the media in that
capacity. It's either that, or there is sometimes an overblown
patronizing, a lifting up, an exalting of the highest sort, making
much over an individual. And occasionally you find religious figures
in our country today that are treated like that. But both are
the weapon of the enemy to try to destroy, and bend, and shift
the preaching of the pastor. They are both an attempt to manipulate,
and it is a subtle attempt. All of us feel it. We want to be known,
we want to be respected, we want to be honored, and it is not
wrong necessarily to feel that way. When James and John came to
our Lord and asked for positions of power one at the right hand
and one at the left hand, he never rebuked them for their desire
-- but he told them God's way of giving it to you will not be
at all what you expect; he's going to do something that you won't
like. He will fulfill your request, but not in the way you think.
And therefore we need to be very much aware of the subtleties
of desire for position, fame, influence with others, recognition
by worldly standards.
You know I became sensitive to this to the point that I can't
do what many preachers do and stand at the door as my congregation
goes out. Because everybody comes out and says what a wonderful
person you are, what a great preacher you are, and all this stuff
-- and I found that's too hard to handle. I don't think it would
bother me as much now, but when I was a young preacher it did.
And I finally just said, "I'm not going to do that any more
-- I will stand up in front, and if people want to talk to me
I'm there and available and we can sit down and talk at length,
but this automatically, mechanically passing on to a preacher
words that flatter him but don't mean anything I think is a very
dangerous practice."
So there is man's judgment, man's day. And the apostle says there
is a third level of judgment. "I do not even judge myself.
I'm not aware of anything against myself," he says, "I've
judged everything I know; I've faced in my life what the Spirit
of God has shown me to be wrong." This is why the apostle
always says that he considers himself blameless. Now a blameless
person doesn't mean a sinless person, because none of us would
be blameless under that measure, even the apostle Paul. What it
means is somebody has handled his sin biblically. He has confessed,
he has received the forgiveness of God. And therefore he is blameless.
And this was the apostle's position about himself. He said that
he was aware of failures, times in his ministry when he felt like
he was weak, and trembling and fearful. He tells us this openly.
He says, "When I was in Asia I went through an experience
that so crushed me and discouraged me and defeated me I felt I
had received the sentence of death."
How many pastors today ever confess to their congregation that
they are sorely tried, sorely tempted. At the beginning of our
body life services, a dozen years ago, I remember trying to introduce
the idea of admitting failure among us as saints, that we might
pray for one another, and bear one another's burdens. And we found
it very difficult to get people to do that. No one wanted to confess
they were struggling in any area even though we knew many of them
were. And someone suggested to me that leadership has to lead.
And since I was leading that meeting, I had to start with my failures.
At that time we were going through a very hurtful struggle with
one of our daughters who had gone away to a Christian college,
and had run up against things that had shocked her and disappointed
her and she sought out the help of what was called a Christian
psychologist who promptly told her that all her problems arose
from her evangelical faith -- that her parents were at fault,
and her upbringing was at fault, and she came home to us hostile
and angry. And we reacted wrongly, and didn't know how to handle
it. Things were in distressing turmoil in our home. And I told
the congregation, I asked them to pray for me. It was painful,
hard to do. I even shared minor things that I had felt. I was
up here at forest home staying in a cabin up there, and there
was a little coffee server there, a cute little thing. And I thought,
"That's a cute little thing -- I could put that in my bag
and take it home with me." And then I thought, "Well,
that would be stealing, I couldn't do that." But I told the
congregation the momentary thought of stealing a coffee server
had crossed my mind. Some of them were a bit appalled by that,
they didn't think I would do that. But I found it rather profitable,
because the next morning there were two boxes on my desk -- and
when I opened them up there were two of those coffee servers!
My people didn't trust me very far. So that Sunday night I shared
how all week long I had been struggling against stealing a color
television set. But I have to admit they haven't risen to that
level of spiritual life yet. But you know we began to admit that
we were having spiritual struggles. A lady stood up and said,
" I wish you would pray for me and my husband, we haven't
spoken to each other all week." And I said, "How many
other couples have had that problem this week?" And a half
dozen hands went up. And then she saw this, and she was encouraged
by it. And then she said, "I'll tell you what the trouble
is too. He won't pick up his socks. He leaves them laying all
over the house, and I have to pick them up after him." I
said, "How many other wives have husbands who won't pick
up their socks?" A hundred hands went up. We began to pray
about the couples that had lost communication like that.
Now you see Paul confessed his failures, his problems, his pressures,
his struggles. And he says, "I don't know anything against
myself. But I'm not acquitted thereby. I don't see deeply enough,
I don't see clearly enough. There may be things I'm doing wrong
right now I'm not aware of." Some of us having breakfast
this morning were looking back over our ministries, and saying
that, how we see so clearly now the ignorance that we had way
back at the beginning, the things we didn't see then and did that
were hurtful to others, that now we recognize were wrong, but
we didn't know it then. And so you see no pastor is able to judge
himself, either to the degree of his failures or the degree of
his successes. We can't pronounce judgment in this area, and it
is a mistake to try to do so. Our tendency is to cover over all
the failures and only look at the successes. You remember the
young preacher who after an especially blessed Sunday, when he
felt the Spirit had just poured out an anointing upon him, and
the whole congregation was moved by his message. He was driving
home afterwards with his wife, and thinking through the service.
He turned to her and said, "I wonder how many great preachers
there are in the world." And her answer was very perceptive.
"One less than you think." We can't, you see, judge
ourselves in this.
But, says the apostle, there is a fourth level here. "It
is the Lord who judges me." Now notice there is a very subtle
shift here in this passage. He says, "It is the Lord who
judges." It is the present, indicative, active. He is NOW
judging me. And all of us know that this is an experience we've
all gone through, those time that we are aware, as the Spirit
of God opens our eyes to some of the things we have done, and
encourages us with some of the things we think are failures. The
Lord opens our eyes, and encourages us by sending someone to us
with a word of blessing when we didn't expect it. Or we sense
the subtle pressure of the Spirit to look again at something that
we thought was a success, and we see that we hurt somebody, or
that we exalted ourselves, our motive was wrong. And I'm sure
if we threw this open for testimony, many could testify to those
experiences. Now that's what Paul in 1 Corinthians 10, remember,
calls "the judging of the Lord." If we would judge ourselves,
he says, as God shows these things to us we would not be judged
with the world. But if we don't judge ourselves, the Lord often
sends trials, sometimes illnesses, chastenings into our life,
to help us to see ourselves. So in one sense there is a judging
of the Lord going on all through our present experience. And how
helpful it is. Perhaps in this very Congress many of you have
felt that judging touch. It's always gentle, it's always understanding,
it's always affirmative. That is, it never crushes us or condemns
us without a word of support and encouragement. But it's there,
and we ought to listen to it.
But there's still another level. That is the final judgment. And
Paul goes on to speak of it. "Therefore do not pronounce
judgment -- any of these levels of judgment, don't take it seriously
and ultimately except the Lord's -- before the Lord comes, who
will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will
disclose the purposes of the heart." And then he adds an
encouraging word: "Then everyone will receive commendation
from God." You see the judgment seat of Christ of which he
speaks in other passages is for believers. But it's not just a
time of condemnation; it's also a time of commendation. And in
that day he's going to settle all the problems, and all the issues,
and as it were take us back and walk back through all the experiences
of our life, and just comment on everything that he wants to bring
to our attention, and tell us what he thought of it. I'm sure
there are experiences -- I know in my own life there are experiences
which I'll be eager for him to see: Oh Lord, remember when I took
that couple into my home who were destitute and depressed and
gave them a good meal and fed them and clothed them and sent them
out? Lord, let's take a look at that! And he'll take a look at
it and say, Hmm. Why did you do that? And I won't be able to kid
me or him at that point. I'll have to say, Well, it was to make
myself feel good, Lord. And I remember how I was sure the rest
of the people on the staff knew about it, so that I'd get approval.
And he'd say, Right. And you've had your reward. Now let's go
on to something else.
And there may be those times when I just hope he won't look at
something. "Oh, what a failure that was, what a mess I made
of that! Lord, could we walk on by that one?" No, he'll say,
that's the one I want to look at. You know you thought you were
a failure. But that was the very moment --- I can introduce to
you 10 people whose lives were changed by that moment that you've
never known about until now. That's the judgment seat of Christ:
the evaluation of our Lord of what's been going on.
Now I want to conclude by bringing this to bear on the general
thrust of the apostle's message here. You see, he's talking about
our preaching ministry, our faithfulness as stewards of the mysteries
of God; how well we did in the area of proclaiming the truth.
And in this connection I always think of an incident told to me
by my dear patron saint, Dr H.A. Ironside, long time pastor of
the great Moody Church in Chicago. I had the privilege as a young
man of knowing Dr Ironside very well, and in fact being invited
by him to travel with him as his chauffeur, secretary, and companion,
during what proved to be the last summer of his life, the summer
of 1950, just before I went to Palo Alto to begin my ministry
there. And we drove all over the east coast, and into the west,
and I had opportunity for long talks with Dr Ironside. And he'd
tell me a lot of very helpful things. He was a delightful raconteur
of stories. And I think without a doubt he was probably the world's
fastest eater. I haven't checked it in the Guinness book of records,
but I think he probably could have held the record. When we'd
go into a restaurant and order a meal, and they'd serve us at
the same time, while I was getting my knife and fork arranged,
and my napkin unfolded and on my lap, he'd be through. And then
he'd sit there and he'd tell me stories that would break me up
so I could hardly eat at times, or melt me in tears.
And one of them I remember very vividly. He told me when he was
a boy here in Los Angeles, 14 years of age, he began to preach
on the streets. But he got a job as a helper to a shoemaker --
cobblers, they called them then. And all shoes were made in little
shops. Each man made his own pair. And he got a job with a believer,
a wonderful, godly man, whose name was Dan. And it was young Harry
Ironside's task to take leather which had been soaked all night
in a tub of water to toughen it, and then take it on an iron anvil
and with a wooden mallet beat the water out of the leather. And
by that process so toughen it and yet soften it so that it was
both pliable and enduring. And then the shoes would be made from
it. But it was a tedious task -- just endlessly beating at leather
until all the water was gone. And what made it even more difficult
was that just a few doors down the street was another cobbler's
shop run by a very godless man, a blasphemous, profane man. And
one day Harry Ironside walking by noticed that this man didn't
bother to beat the water out of the leather. He'd pick the leather
up out of the tub and cut out a piece, and nail it on the shoe
with the water splashing in every direction. And one day Harry
ventured to stop, and said to him, "Sir, you know I work
down the street at Dan's shop, and I noticed that you don't bother
to beat the water out of your leather. Why is that?" And
he said the man gave him a rather evil wink, and said to him,
"Ah, they come back all the quicker this way." So Harry
Ironside went back to his shop and he said to his employer, "Sir,
why do we do this? It's such a hard job to beat all this water
out, it takes so long! And the man down the street says if you
just take it out you can put it on the shoe and the customers
will all come back quicker this way." Well, he said the old
man looked at him. And he didn't say a word. He just took off
his apron, and he took him by the hand, led him over to a bench
and sat him down. And he said, "Harry, I apologize to you
for not having told you more fully what is involved. But you know,
son, I expect to see every pair of shoes I've ever made in a big
pile at the judgment seat of Christ. And I expect the Lord to
take those shoes and go through every one, and examine the work
I did. And then I expect, I imagine oftentimes, he'll take one
and he'll look at me and say, "Dan, that's not up to par.
You didn't do a very good job there." But others, he'll encourage
me by saying, "Dan, that was a splendid job." You know,
when I make shoes, I keep remembering that. And I want to so make
shoes that every shoe I make will pass the judgment of the Lord
at the judgment seat of Christ."
Harry Ironside said, "I've never forgotten that. And I resolved
in my own heart that every sermon I preach will be able to pass
the judgment of my Lord." I've never forgotten that story
either. I think all my sermon notes and perhaps videotapes of
how I've delivered them are going to be stacked up beside the
judgment seat of Christ. And there the Lord is going to go through
them and say to me, "Ray, you didn't do so well on this.
You shirked your preparation time. You didn't really grasp this
passage, did you?" And I'll have to say, Yes, Lord, you know
all things. But what I really pray for, and what I really want,
and what motivates my heart deeply, is that every message I preach
in fear and trembling, with the realization of the poor human
vessel the Lord has to work with will nevertheless pass the judgment
of the Lord because I depend both in the preparation and the delivery
on the Spirit of the living God and am willing to work at it until
I understand what he has to say.
Now I think that's what the apostle Paul is talking about. That's
the accountability of a preacher. As under-rowers of Christ, obedient
to what the captain says, we do our work in view of the judgment
seat of Christ.
Well, may God bless you as you go back to your work and to your
ministry. And I hope this has proved of some help to you in getting
ready to preach. Anybody have any questions you'd like to ask
before we dismiss?
Does the Scripture 1 Corinthians 12:28 indicate that the gift
of a pastor/teacher is a higher or more important gift than those
listed later on in the verse. 1 Corinthians 12:28: And God has
appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third
teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators,
speakers in various types of tongues. My answer would be that
I do not think these are listed in order of importance, but rather
in order of appearance in history. The historical occurrence of
these. First were sent the apostles, they had to initiate the
founding of the church. Then came the prophets such as you find
at the church in Antioch, who came along and spoke the word of
God interpreting it to them. And this was followed by teachers,
because it is the work of the teacher to explain the word of the
prophet. And then in turn there come the workers of miracles and
so on. So that these are not listed in order of importance. And
judging on what else is said in 1 Corinthians 12, we are not to
rank gifts in order of importance, other than the ranking which
the apostle gives which seems to put the gift of prophesying as
that must useful within the church. But remember he said the eye
cannot say to the foot I have no need of you. We cannot disregard
the weaker members, but as he puts it himself, these weaker members
are often treated with a greater sense of honor.
How should we respond to those who are right in their judgment;
that is, those who are preaching outside (well, I guess he means
those preaching outside the hall here) though it may or may not
be done properly without encouragement? Footnote, they are basically
saying the church is not doing enough. I haven't been able to
stop and even listen to these young people who are preaching outside
the hall but I would say that in general I wouldn't try to stop
them. I think there is often a kind of zeal without knowledge
that is manifested frequently by younger Christians. But I am
hesitant even to resist that because our Lord didn't. Remember
he sent out the apostles to preach in the cities and villages
of Galilee even before they were filled with the Spirit. He sent
them out with the knowledge that their attitudes were carnal,
their zeal was fleshly, and yet he sent them. Like D.L. Moody
said, I'd rather have somebody who's using the gifts he's got
even though he doesn't use them rightly than have people who have
a great deal of knowledge and doing nothing at all. I wouldn't
particularly try to encourage them, I'd seek if I could and had
the time an opportunity to become their friends and help them.
You never help somebody by just condemnation alone. That's forbidden
to us actually in the word of God. But if a brother be overtaken
in a fault then let those who are spiritual among you restore
him in a spirit of meekness, of gentleness, remembering yourselves
along this line.
Could you share some of the errors that you made in your early
preaching ministry so we could benefit from your mistakes. Well,
that may take a little while. I think one thing, like most young
men I came on too severely. My tendency, and I've been taught,
I'm afraid, to sort of blast people, and to lay heavy trips on
them, and challenge them if they didn't act I was going to resign,
and this sort of thing. And I quickly learned that that is not
God's way of doing things. That a preacher must lead people. Sheep
can be led, but it's hard to drive them. But if we lead them gently
they'll respond. But nobody likes to be blasted at. I remember
the words of Jesus when he said to his disciples, I have yet many
things to say unto you but you cannot bear them yet. You see there's
a self restraint on his part in which he knew they were lacking,
he knew there were things they needed to learn, but he knew they
weren't ready for them yet. And many a pastor has to learn that
his people are resisting not because they are trying deliberately
to oppose and wreck the work of God but because they need a level
of understanding of truth and life before they are ready to act
on these things. And this is his business, to make them ready
for that.
Our time is gone. Thank you very much for your attention.