Divine Jealousy Over the Local Church

ζήλω γαρ υμάς θεού ζήλω "For I am jealous of you with the jealousy of God" (2 Cor. 11:2).  Herein exist the heart of the true pastor of the local church.  Paul equates his hearts desire for the Corinthian church with the very heart of God over the nation of Israel.  In the Decalogue it says, "I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God", as a command to the Israelites that idolatry is not tolerated (Ex. 20:5; Deut. 5:9).  God's zeal for his people results in blessings when they obey and curses when they disobey (Deut. 28).  God knows that the absolute best scenario for His people is that they worship Him alone.  To worship anything other than the living God is to commit idolatry and incur the just judgment of God.  God's love for His people is evidenced in His desiring their greatest good, which is God.  Thus, it grieves the heart of God when people turn to lesser things.

In the oriental culture of Paul's day an engagement to be married was equivalent to marriage without consummation.  It was like unto Joseph and Mary.  They were betrothed, but the marriage had not been consummated.  The betrothal period generally lasted about one year.  The betrothal was held to such a standard that to break the relationship was equivalent to a divorce.  The only way to end the betrothal was by death of one of the parties.  The father of the bride to be was very concerned to be able to present his daughter to her future husband as a virgin.  It would shame and grieve the father greatly to know that his daughter was unfaithful to the one she was betrothed to.  A good and loving father would have great desire to protect his daughter and to keep her pure until her wedding day.  So Paul exerts himself to keep the church pure from doctrine contrary to the gospel as he strives to present her to Christ.

In this scenario that Paul presents we are brought before a groom who is absolutely perfect.  He is impeccable in His character.  He is sinless in thought, word, and deed.  He is infinitely loving, merciful, and beautiful beyond description.  He sacrifices His own life for the bride.  He prepares an eternal home for  His bride.  He provides for all the needs of His bride and withholds no good thing from her.

Paul knows the groom well and is compelled with a divine jealousy to present the Corinthian church to Christ as a pure virgin.  The word αγνός (pure) is synonymous with the word άγιος (holy).  Paul desires for the Corinthian church to be pure/holy in all her ways as she waits for the coming of her groom.  Paul is greatly disturbed when the Corinthian church pursues after lesser things.  Paul is grieved to see people leave the Corinthian church for a different Jesus (vs. 4a), a different spirit (vs. 4b), or a different gospel (vs. 4c).  Paul is heavy hearted that people would run after so-called super-apostles (vs 5).

Any pastor worth his salt has experienced the same emotions as the apostle Paul did.  In the 21st century the value of the local church is synonymous with the value of marriage.  It has become common language in our day to talk of homosexuality, divorce, living together, shacking-up, test driving the product, co-habitation, and the one man with one woman till death separate them has become the oddity.  The degeneration of the local church is revealed as countless numbers of people sleep with a different local church every year.  The number of local churches that people have joined is closely related to the number of divorces the average American experiences (or changing of partners).  Church people hop from one church to another like fornicators and adulterers jump from one bed to another.  The view of the local church has become so low that most people have lost all respect for the church and thrown it to the side in hope of finding something better.  Like unto marriage, that which God has ordained as good and right has been thrown away for something far less and dramatically more destructive.  The number one phrase used to justify the swapping of one church for another is, "you just do not understand how bad my last church was".  Note: The last church probably improved after you left.

The arguments that are used for leaving the local church are the same ones that are used for divorce.  The fault is always with the spouse and all the things they did not do, or the things that they did that were wrong.  The fault is the pastor's or certain people within the local church.  The love that once existed has been lost and the couple has simply grown apart.  The love that was once held for the local church has been lost and the Lord is moving us somewhere else (this is near unto blasphemy to invoke the name of God to justify something that God had nothing to do with).  Countless marriages could be saved through repentance, forgiveness, and a whole lot of mercy.  Countless people could still be actively serving the local church if they would repent, forgive, and demonstrate a whole lot of mercy.

Paul knew that for people to abandon a church like the one at Corinth (this church was filled with problems) was a terrible move.  He knew that he could only effectively continue to minister to them if they stayed within the local body.  Oh, how it hurt Paul to see people go and for him to no longer have the opportunity to feed and water them on a regular basis.  Paul equates marriage to the local church in Ephesians 5 and a proper study of that passage will reveal that the departure from the local church is equivalent to adultery.  Paul was jealous over his church with a divine jealousy and he makes no apology for living out such an attitude.

I pray that every pastor would live out their ministry with a heart like unto Paul for the local church and that church members would study the Word of God closely and see the value they are to place upon the local church.  The church is the 'apple' of God's eye and great caution must be exercised in how people treat her.  God will not be mocked and he will not overlook the way people treated the bride of His dear Son.  I pray that God will grant you a local church that rightly divides the Word and the sacraments are rightly administered and that you will serve the Lord Jesus in that place until He comes.  Amen!

The Heart of a Godly Pastor for the Local Church

The life of the pastor of the local church is filled with responsibilities, relationships, and requirements.  The typical pastor makes countless decisions per day and many of those decisions involve eternal elements.  The number of things that are pressed before a pastor each day cannot all be accomplished.  The pastor simply does not have enough time to cover every area that needs to be covered.  The time for prayer and study alone takes up a large portion of time.  The time that is left per day after prayer and study can be filled with visitation, family, community, evangelism, tragedies, funerals, weddings, and the list goes on.

In thinking through the reality of the many obligations that pull at the pastor of the local church, you could easily add the emotional level of it all.  The pastor loves his people, cares about their spiritual wellbeing, and truly hurts when he sees those he cares about going down a road that will hurt them.  When the pastor does get home his mind and heart are still consumed about all the issues of the day, and when he lays down to sleep it seems that his mind moves even faster.  If it were not for the grace of God he would simply self-destruct.

It is not my intent in this post to try to solve the whole of this situation, but to give a word that may help the pastor and that may help the church member to help their pastor.  In Philippians 3:14 Paul says, "I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus".  The word διώκω (press on) means "to move rapidly and decisively toward an objective, hasten, run, press on" (BDAG).  This verse is where we get the old hymn, "I Am Resolved" by Palmer Hartsough.  In stanza 3 of that hymn he says, "I am resolved to follow the Savior, faithful and true each day.  Heed what He sayeth, do what He willeth, He is the living way".

There are a few things that should be notice from Philippians 3:12-16 about Paul that should help.  First, the word διώκω is also used in verse 12.  Paul realizes that he has not obtained the resurrection from the dead nor is he perfect, but he 'presses on'.  What is Paul's motive?  Christ has made him his own.  Paul's identity in Christ was the motive of his ministry.  Second, Paul had the wisdom to know that he could not live in the past.  He had made mistakes, sinned, failed, and etc., but wisdom showed him to επιλανθανομαι (to forget) what was behind and to stretch out or strain for what is ahead.  Third, Paul knew that the issue that was of extreme importance was to διώκω (press on) in regards to the call.  There is nothing greater on earth than the call to the pastoral ministry and the pastor of the local church cannot allow anything to distract him from fulfilling that call.  Martin Luther reportedly said, "Why should I stoop to the level of being a king, when I can stand in the pulpit of God".  Lastly,  the mature are the ones who think this way.  The local pastor must hold true to that which he has obtained.  

The local pastor is to be motivated by his identity in Christ, forgetting the past, pressing on to fulfill the call,  and to know that that is the most mature thing that he can do.  The local pastor will save himself a lot of trouble to have resolve in these areas.  Resolve who you are in Christ.  Resolve what it is that your have been called to do.  Resolve, that come hell or high water you will preach verse by verse, pray without ceasing, lead your family, and serve your local church.  No matter what the entire world may do, nor what they may do to you, be resolved to διώκω (press on) to fulfill the calling that God has placed upon your life.  

If you as a church member desire to help your pastor fulfill his God given role, here are a few suggestions that may be a blessing to your pastor and ultimately to your own soul.  First, pray for your pastor on a daily basis.  Pray that he will stay focused upon that which is most important to the God he serves.  Second, encourage him to study well for his sermons and for any bible studies he is teaching.  Come to class or to worship hungry to learn from the Word of God.  Ask him questions about the text and show interest in the Word of God.  Third, take a moment and encourage his wife.  A pastor's wife who is encouraged, loved, and appreciated will ultimately be one of the greatest ways to bless the pastor.  Show me a happy pastor's wife and I will show you a happy pastor.  Lastly, show genuine love for God by showing genuine love for your local church.  Any pastor worth his salt will love the local church and he will be greatly encouraged to see others loving the same thing that he loves.  There is nothing more draining on a pastor that to see people with a low view of the bride of Christ and there is nothing more exciting for a pastor than to see the people of God giving their lives to serve God by serving the local church. 

How to Pastor the Local Church

Pastoring the local church is full of challenges.  The pastor questions himself every week wondering whether or not he is being and doing what God has called him to be and do.  In our modern church world a pastor who looks to the internet to examine the pastorate, he may come to many different conclusions.  He may think that to be a pastor he must be successful (growing numbers and his own reputation).  He may consider that to be a good pastor he will have to be on the cutting edge of ministry (lights, camera, action).  He may look to his external appearance and seek to dress a little more hip (square rimmed glasses, untucked shirt, and just the right pair of shoes).  He may even think about his preaching style and seek to implement a laptop, iPad, iPod, or other media helps (visual learning, lights, catchy).  The modern church gives offs the vibes of a hollywood mentality that is seeking the best show in town with the greatest of actors.  He may feel he has to keep up with what everyone else is doing.

What is it that makes a good pastor?  It is of vital importance to look at the "Chief Pastor" to develop a true understanding of pastoring.  Towards the end of Jesus' earthly ministry he is gathered together with his local church of 12 men.  He has known all along that one member of his church is not really with Him.  Jesus had even revealed that one of them was the devil back in John 6:70.  With this knowledge of Judas we still find Jesus teaching Judas, serving Judas, and even washing his feet.  Herein, is the heart of the successful pastor.  A man so in love with the glory of God that he would even wash the feet of the devil to the glory of God.  In John 13 we find these words from the "Chief Pastor", "αγαπησας τους ίδιους τους ev  τω κόσμω εις τέλος ηγάπησεν αυτούς"(having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end).  With all the faults, failures, and at times fickleness of His local church Jesus loved them to the very end.  


The word love gets thrown around and used in many different ways by different people.  We must define the word properly.  Love is defined this way, "By this we know love, that He (Jesus) laid down His life for us".  Jesus, the Chief Pastor, sacrificed Himself for the undeserving.  He sacrificially taught them, prayed all night for them, fed them, watered them, led them, and in our present passage He washed their feet.  A local church of 12 with one of them being a devil and the other eleven having issue of doubt, fear, lack of prayer, timidity, denials, and in general they just were not that impressive.  Jesus loved them to the end.  They misunderstood His teaching at times and had the shocking ability to forget the greatest of miracles that Jesus did.  Jesus' local church rebuked Him for sleeping when a storm was on the sea, when He said He was going to return to Jerusalem, and when He told them He must die.  What nerve they had to rebuke the Chief Pastor.  Yet, Jesus loved them to the end.  


In order to Pastor a local church correctly the pastor will have to learn to love the unloveable.  He will have to be patient with those he does not think deserve his patience.  He will have to teach those who are playing on their phones and iPad's while he is teaching.  He will have to preach to those who sleep while he preaches.  He will have to serve those who slander his good name in the community.  He must learn to love those who do not even want to be loved.  He must learn to love those who do not love him.  He will have to serve some that proof, in the end to be in partnership with the devil.  He must look to Jesus, the Chief Pastor and learn to love like Jesus loved.  He loved to the end. 


Bypassing all of the modern trends of what is said it takes to be a successful pastor, perhaps men should try to learn to love the local church the way that Jesus did.  Jesus loved his own to the end.  Do you love your own to the end?

Answer to the question

The quote from my last blog entry was C. H. Spurgeon and is found in "Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit", Vol. 60, pgs. 566-567.

Who is the author?

Just a bit of trivia on limited atonement.  See if you can guess who wrote the following and I will give the answer and source in a few days.  The quote comes in a discussion about faith from James 2:14-17.

"What James does mean, however, is this, no doubt, in brief and short, that while faith saves, it is faith of a certain kind.  No man is saved by persuading himself that he is saved; nobody is saved by believing Jesus Christ died for him.  That may be, or may not be, true in the sense in which he understands it.  In a certain sense Christ died for all men, but since it is evident that many men are lost, Christ's dying for all men is not at all a ground upon which any man may hope to be saved.  Christ died for some men in another sense, in a peculiar and special sense.  No man has a right to believe that Christ peculiarly and specially died for him until he has an evidence of it in casting himself upon Christ, and trusting in Jesus, and bringing forth suitable works to evince the reality of his faith.  The faith that saves is not a historical faith, not a faith that simply believes a creed and certain facts; I have no doubt devils are very orthodox; I do not know which church they belong to, though there are some in all churches, there was one in Christ's Church when he was on earth, for he said one was filled with devils; and there are some in all churches" (Underlines are added by me).

Idiot vs. Atheist

Is there a God?  It is Christmas time here in America and there are always people who seem to get offended.   There is a group trying to have a Nativity scene taken down because it is offensive.  There are debates about whether people who work at certain stores can say "Merry Christmas" or whether they must say "Happy Holidays". Christmas seems to bring out some level of tension over religious matters in our country.  The atheist are the ones that seem to be so offended by the emphasis upon religious things.

I would hope to think that the people who call themselves Atheist would consider themselves rational, logical, and a thinking people.  Surely they examine facts and data to come to conclusions about things.  They read the science books and examine the theories of evolution.  The Atheist desires to believe the cold hard facts and refuses to believe in an invisible, unprovable, irrational theory about God.  The Atheist would not call himself an 'Idiot'.

What is an idiot?  Webster says that an idiot is "showing complete lack of thought or common sense, foolish".  An idiot is a person who totally ignores the facts and is unwilling to think through the truth of the data.  An idiot just blindly goes through life and commits the most mind-boggling actions.  He is an idiot who jumps out of an airplane without a parachute.  He is an idiot who takes a nap in the middle of the train tracts.  He is an idiot who would claim that there was never a man named Jesus who walked upon planet earth.

The Atheist surely is not dumb enough to make a claim that Jesus Christ never existed.  The religious and the non-religious all recognize that there was a man name Jesus who was born in Bethlehem to Joseph and Mary.  It is impossible to prove that Jesus did not exist.  Jesus was seen by thousands of people, taught thousands of people, healed numerous people, preached public sermons, was tried in human courts, and ultimately was crucified on a hillside in front of multitudes.  The facts of Jesus' life are so enormous that only an idiot would deny the existence of Jesus Christ.  Only an idiot would deny abundantly clear evidence that is placed before him.  The existence of Jesus could be proved from secular sources, pagan sources, Christian sources, and even could be proved from people who hated him.  After all, in order to truly hate someone, they have to exist.

Instead of declaring the Atheist an Idiot I will assume that he is intelligent enough to acknowledge the existence of Jesus Christ.  Assuming that the Atheist will agree that Jesus Christ did exist upon this earth there is a large problem now presented.  Jesus Christ is called "Immanuel" (which means, God with us).  The Atheist claims that there is no God, but holds the position that Jesus Christ did exist.  That is just simply not intelligent.  If Jesus Christ exists then God exists, because Jesus Christ is God with us.  The Atheist could claim that Jesus only said He was God.  The Atheist must then deal with the historical facts that Jesus walked on water, gave sight to the blind, healed the leper, raised the dead, caused the lame to walk, fed 5,000 plus with a couple of fish and five loaves of bread, and rose from the dead on the third day.  All of these events were witnessed by numerous people, including enemies.  No mere man can accomplish these things.  It would take God in human flesh to do what Jesus did.

Call it what you will, but only an Idiot would deny the historical facts of the life of Christ.  Only a complete fool would say that there is no God (Psalm 14:1; 53:1).  It would be my prayer today that some professing Atheist would humble himself and see the beauty of Jesus Christ and repent of his sin of idolatry and believe upon Jesus Christ for his salvation.  Isaiah the prophet says, "Look to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth!  For I am God, and there is no other" (Isaiah 45:22).

Open-Air Preaching #2

When it comes to preaching outside the church there seems to be an underlying belief that it is simply not acceptable in our culture.  This implies that at one time it was acceptable, but that it is not anymore.  In biblical times they did not have a church on every corner, no public announcement system, and no TV screens.  Thus, it must have been acceptable for people to preach outdoors.  It seems that the modern mind simply imagines that everyone in biblical times was accepting of the open-air preachers.  However, a quick examination of the best sermons ever preached outdoors (Matt. 5-7; John 1:19-34; Acts 3:11-26; 10:34-43; 17:22-34; and etc.)  will reveal that they were met with division, hostility, outrage, and even with prison and death threats.  There were those who repented and believed and there were those who wanted nothing more than to kill the preacher.

The world is not a good way to judge the things of God.  When the church stays inside and does not live out their faith, the world calls the church people hypocrites.  When the church goes outside and begins to live out its faith by proclaiming its message, the world cries out that the church has gone mad and they need to go back to their church buildings.  The world cannot be made happy by people living out truth.  The world tells the preacher to stop 'yelling'.  The world claims the street preacher is to judgmental.  The world claims that you cannot push religion down peoples throats.  The world claims that the preacher is self-righteous.  The world that crams all of their philosophies down the throat of the church is now offended when preachers stand and boldly proclaim the gospel in the open-air.

The religious people of the day are not a good barometer to judge the things of God.  The religious people are worse than the world on many occasions.  The religious people always claim that there is a better way, but fail to communicate what it is.  The religious people would rather be friendly, be relational, and pass out free hot dogs and water bottles (nothing wrong with that) than to actually verbally proclaim the gospel to dying sinners.  As a good friend once said, "A hot dog without the gospel is just a hot dog".  The religious people have found that the world will love them if they give them stuff, but if they actually confront the world with truth it will cause a stir.  The religious would rather have the world to thank them for all of their humanitarian deeds than to have the world offended by the truth that they proclaim.

The question of questions that the open-air preacher hears from the world and from the religious people,  "Is what your doing effective"?  In order to answer such a question one must ask another question, "How is effective to be defined"?  The Christian defines effective in the following way.  Effective - "Doing that which is pleasing to God for the glory of God because he loves God and doing it in a way that reveals his love for humanity".  This definition takes into account the two greatest commandments.  This definition has nothing to do with numbers, popularity, or denominational approval.

Now back to our 21st century context.  Is open-air preaching still a valid ministry?  The answer is yes and the answer is no.  Genesis to Revelation will reveal that the church has been birthed, built, and battle-proven through the public proclamation of the gospel message.  The greatest revival in recorded history was in a place called Nineveh.  A street preacher named Jonah came to a pagan city and publicly proclaimed, "Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be over-thrown".  The entire city was brought to repentance through the open-air preaching of Jonah.  The king all the way to the bottom of the social standing was brought to repentance.  The whole of the book of Acts was the birth of the early church and the key catalyst was public proclamation.  So the answer is yes.  However, do not miss the word that was said earlier, "church".  It is the "church" that as birthed, built, and battle-proven.  Open-air preaching apart from the local church has little credibility before the truth of Scripture.  God's will and work is always tied to the local church.  Open-air preaching that does not move men and women to a local church, discipleship, and accountability is weak at best and destructive at worse.  So, open-air preaching that is not tied to the local church is not a valid ministry.  Certainly there may be good that can come out of preaching any time it is done, but why aim low when one can aim high.  Preach for the glory of God in the midst of a dying world and build a church that will bring Him greater glory both now and in the years to come.