Ministerial Material (11/24/22)

Having dwelt at some length on the nature of Paul’s preparation and fitting for service in my earlier notes, I will touch but briefly on them here – to the degree it is in me to touch on any matter briefly in these morning studies.  While I take Paul as my example for these considerations, I would stress that he is but an example, however towering his place in the establishing of Christ’s church.  He was, as I observed in those earlier comments, as we might say uniquely prepared for his role.  A Jewish man, a Roman citizen, raised amidst Greek society in a place rife with Asian influences; all of these threads come together to form the man.  And I think we must pay special heed to the fact that none of these threads required cutting off from him.  They required weaving.  I would say that in fact, they were far more than happy accidents of circumstance.  They were design.  They were specific preparation for this specific man to be ready for his specific purpose – a purpose established by God.

“He is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel” (Ac 9:15-16).  “Now, go, for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.”  I happened to utilize the phrase from verse 16, that ‘I will show him’ part to find the passage this morning, but really, it’s the point of his being a chosen instrument that has my attention.  He is a chosen instrument.  He had been uniquely prepared for this role, bringing together in his character both Greek and Jew – and Asian, too, both scholar and rabbi – and as well, a strong touch of the mystic.  Now, we might look at this and think, oh dear, accretions!  This must be cleaned up, have some of these foreign influences eliminated so that the pure man can come through.  God did not see it thus.  Paul did not see it thus.  No, this was all to a purpose; to God’s purpose.  Now he was ready.  It just needed training, this new perspective that comes of having one’s eyes opened to the reality of Christ, to the God Who Is.

So:  Application number one.  Like Paul, like Peter or James or John or any of the others, and like any other figure you care to consider through the whole history of God’s work of redemption, we are prepared by the events of our past.  We have these theories or questions as to the roles of nature and nurture, trying to assess to what degree we inherit our character and to what degree it is shaped by our surroundings.  But as interesting as that subject can be, it’s beside the point.  The point is that whether it is inherited traits or trained habits, the life we have lived to this point has come about by God’s doing.  We are (or were) being prepared for our purpose.  Hear how Paul himself puts it.  “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:10).

Paul could certainly speak of this from experience.  This was his life in a nutshell.  But observe first that he is not addressing a seminary class.  He is not addressing some convention of future ministers.  He is addressing the general body of believers.  You and I are His workmanship.  You and I are created in or by Christ Jesus for good works.  Your past has been preparation for your future.  And your future, in this case, should already be your present.

I am quite sure that most any one of us could look back upon our past and find cause for regret, if we were so inclined.  I am quite sure we could come up with a list of things that we would just as soon had not happened, or that we had done differently.  I am equally certain that should we put our mind to it, we could observe occasions in the course of our life where, whatever our thoughts may have been at the time, God had clearly intervened to preserve us.  I know of at least two such events I could point to in my own life, and often have done in these morning times.  I suppose I could add that day my friend and I were playing at revolutionary war, with me the poor colonist armed only with rocks.  Or any number of other incidents of childhood that could just as readily proved to have rather permanent, if not deadly consequences, but did not.

Somewhere along the way, however, I came to be of the mindset that I could hardly rue the things of my past for they had all come together to bring me to being who I am at present.  That is not to say that I would have inevitably, by my own power, have become a man of faith.  Far from it!  Apart from God I should still be wandering and lost and pursuing every manner of sinful habit.  And this I know only too well, for many of those desires remain ever with me, though the Holy Spirit within restrains my pursuing them or at the very least reins me in should I begin to do so.  But like Paul, I have to look back to who I was and see that this was God preparing me for who I am in Him.  To what purpose?  This is harder to say, other than that He has set things before me that I might do them.

Lest ego start to inflate, let us recognize that those works which God prepared for our doing, He can just as readily complete without us should it prove to be the case that we are all unwilling.  But He prepared them for us, and He prepares us for them.  Let me stress again:  This is not because He needs us.  God is in need of nothing, being absolutely, one-hundred percent complete in Himself.  Neither are these somehow tests we must pass if we would find entrance into His presence.  That entrance has already been given you in Christ Jesus.  Should we fail, should we somehow screw up our assignment, the due penalty has already been paid, and we shall find ourselves quite forgiven when once we recognize our error and ask for it.

But like Paul, we are being uniquely prepared for those things uniquely prepared for us.  Our doing is not, in the end, for God’s benefit, nor is it to our merit.  But it does seem to me to be a means of self-check, after a fashion.  God gives us these things to do that we might have purpose in our life.  He gives us these things to do that in doing them we might discover His work in us.  Perhaps it is through these things that we learn to appreciate even those hard patches in the life He has given us to live.  And maybe that’s all there is to it, that by the fruit of our life of faith we might learn to be thankful for all that has made us who we are.

Part of that preparation which I think we should take to heart is that God shapes us to be such as care for those amongst whom we minister as individuals.  This may seem a matter specific to those who serve in active, shall we say official ministry.  Certainly, the pastor should be such as will take the time to know his congregation as individuals.  The sort of pastor who sees only numbers, seeks only to increase his prestige by the size of his congregation is the sort we should probably flee.  This is no pastor.  This is an opportunist, an egotist.  He is the sort of shepherd God rebuked most soundly through Isaiah and others of his prophets.  They feed themselves off the flock, rather than feeding the flock as per God’s intentions.

But beloved, we are all of us ministers of Christ, whether by vocation or simply by our redemption.  Remember Peter’s encouragement?  “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1Pe 2:9-10).  You are!  You, who were not a people are now the people of God.  You are the priesthood – all of you.  All of us.  We may not take to the pulpit in the church.  We may not even rise to the point of serving as deacons in the church.  And yet, we are all servants of Christ, all of us deacons.  That is, I suspect, a rather radical thought, to be taken advisedly.  But in the same sense that we are all priests unto our God, we are also all deacons, Levites, set here as servants in His house, which house after all extends well beyond the walls of the church building.  His house, in point of fact, is with us wherever we go, for He has made us to be His temples and it is thus that the Holy Spirit abides in us, dwelling in the temple which He has made.

So then, we too have a call upon us to know our fellow believers as individuals.  This has got to mean getting involved in each other’s lives.  This has got to mean moving beyond the social graces we might practice during greeting times.  It’s going to mean caring enough about those other members of our local body to know what is going on in their lives.  I’m not talking about remembering birthdays and sending cards.  I’m not even talking all that much about knowing that so and so is sick and bringing them aid and comfort, although that should certainly be part of it.  But what are they going through?  Who are they?  What’s their story, and where have I been uniquely prepared to minister to them, to edify them?  For all that, where have they been uniquely prepared to minister to me?  It is, after all, a two-way street, and one of many that God has established in our little household of faith.

I think, as a final point in this first portion of my notes, I would like to consider a comment Matthew Henry makes with regard to the minister, and particularly in light of Paul’s observations about himself in this passage.  He writes, “But men of business are not masters of their own time.”  Now, my first reaction to this, I must confess, is to wonder what business men of business have here in considering the minister’s preparation.  Men of business?  No, no, Mr. Henry.  These are men of the cloth you discuss.  But men of the cloth are men of business, and of a business far more important than matters of commerce or even of government.  Their business, our business, is kingdom business.  It is in pursuit of matters of eternity, the saving of souls and the edifying of those already saved.  It is, in short, the making of disciples.  I shall, I suspect, have more to say on that in the last section of this study, although I cannot assure you of that.  I know too well how my thoughts can find different avenues to travel as I go.

For now, let us take this to heart.  We are not masters of our own time.  That is not simply because we have employers who pay us to use our time to their advantage, and it’s not because we have a family and they have claims upon our attention.  These things are so, but they are subservient to the greater business, our higher calling as a chosen race of royal priests, citizens of Christ’s kingdom today, and God’s own possession unto eternity.  His business is our business.  His claim is upon our time, for He is our Lord, our Master.  By rights, each and every day should begin with consideration of what it is the Lord has purposed for us today.  This morning being Thanksgiving morning, I could easily look to the day ahead and see it as a blank canvas for me to satisfy my own pursuits.  Oh, look!  Here is a day with time to play, perhaps to make music, perhaps simply to relax.

We are in that curious phase of life where children are far enough away that elaborate preparations of a Thanksgiving meal are not needful, nor are we called upon to travel off to some distant location to partake of a meal elsewhere.  We can content ourselves with being with ourselves, enjoy a rather stress-free day in one another’s company and more or less do as we please.  Except, there’s that point before me.  We are not really masters of our own time.  We are servants of the living God, and as such, however mundane the day may seem, the point remains unchanged:  We serve at His pleasure.  It would behoove us to consider what His pleasure would be.

Does this mean I may not pursue my particular pleasures today?  It might.  It might not.  If it is His good pleasure that I enjoy mine, so be it.  If He has other plans, then I should set myself to be most thoroughly content in whatever it is He would have me to do.  I should, it seems, be seeking that I might be attentive and aware of those good works He has prepared beforehand that I might walk in them.  There will be some today.  There are some every day.  How many do I miss?  More than I care to think.

Father, this day is Yours.  Every day is Yours, but I cannot shift my past.  For all that, I cannot shift my future.  But I can set myself to do as best I may to live for You this day.  I can seek that You might keep me mindful of Your purpose for me, and that You might grant me eyes to see what it is You have prepared, as well as the strength of will to do those things when once I have seen them.  I am Yours.  You have made me so.  Let it be, then, that I may be useful to You in some fashion.  Let it be that I may demonstrate some fruit of that work which You are doing in me, and bring You some little joy this day.  And by all means, let me be thankful for all that You do daily, things big and small, that I find myself here to make such request of You this morning, that I live and do not die, and that I do not take the trials of this life as cause for panic and dismay, knowing that You are with me, and that even should I die, yet shall I live because You live.  Thank You.  Come and fill this day.  I am Yours.

Sovereign God, Subservient Satan (11/25/22-11/26/22)

This is one of those points where I am comforted and confirmed in seeing that pretty much all of these commentaries perceive the same points that I have observed in my early notes.  It is all well and good when the commentaries bring new things into view, but it I do appreciate the validation of what could well have been off-base opinions by way of these other voices speaking the same things.  The challenge, as we are to be considering the interworkings of God and Satan, is to keep our doctrines straight and our perspectives in balance.

The first risk to balance, I suppose, is that we come to so downplay Satan as to think him irrelevant.  What was it my brother was saying last Tuesday?  Something to the effect that Satan’s cleverest ploy has been to convince so many that he simply doesn’t exist.  How many look at these Satanist assemblies that rise up and find it something of a joke?  How many cast about for an explanation for the present perversion of mind and soul in the populace world-wide, and arrive at no answer?  Things just are what they are, right?  An uncaring, unfeeling universe just tossed this up.  But while that may speak to various catastrophes, it can’t really serve as explanation for the corruption of mind that is evident all around us.  What does?

Well, Scripture is clear enough, I should think.  We dwell in a world currently ruled by powers of darkness, by spiritual beings beyond our immediate ken, and far beyond our capacities.  There is this thread of information that runs through the text which informs us of angels – angels! – who sinned and fell from grace.  This is perhaps the most shocking thing we find in the whole of Scripture.  Corrupt men we understand, for we dwell among them, and were just like them prior to Christ turning us around.  But angels?  They’re in heaven!  They see God.  They are in His presence constantly.  How could they fall?  How could Satan, who at least by some accounts was heaven’s worship leader, come to think himself a better god than God?  I don’t know.  But I know it is the end result, even if some of the details are a tad speculative.  Satan fell, and with him fell some number of the host of heaven.

He set himself to take God’s place, and as such, he sets himself to oppose every work of the Church at all times.  We can follow his efforts throughout the Old Testament, starting with Eve.  Why was he messing with her?  Was it just because God has shown favor to Adam and Eve, and seemed to take pleasure in them?  I think it was something more, something insidious.  Recall that from before the first moments of creation God had the Cross in view.  To the degree there was a before, it had already been covenanted between the Persons of the Godhead that things would proceed as they did, and the day would come when God the Son must come down, take up the life of humanity, and die the death of humanity in payment for the sins of humanity.  All that is to say that Satan’s corruption of our earliest forebears was no surprise to God.  It was a heck of a blow to us, though.

And it continues.  We see it repeatedly.  What was up with Joseph?  It was simple enough.  Satan knew enough of the plan to seek that he might thwart it, and he did so at every turn.  Why was Sarah taken captive?  Why was Lot a victim of raiding parties?  Why was he in Sodom?  What led David to sin with Bathsheba?  Or what possessed Solomon, granted the very wisdom of God, that he should screw up so badly as to all but lose the kingdom?  And the kings that followed?  And so on, and so on, right up to Jesus.  Over and over again, Satan moved to cut off the thread of promise.  And over and over again, he failed.

One wonders, at times, at the futility of his efforts.  What was he thinking?  Did he really suppose he could off God and take His place?  Did he really believe he could somehow outmaneuver and defeat the Supreme Being?  At some level, I have to think that yes, he really did, else this would be an exercise in pointless futility even in his own mind.  Surely, to have brought things to the point of having Christ on the Cross, he must have supposed that this time, he really had managed to pull it off.  But, rather like Wile E. Coyote (as I hear the coyotes howling out back this morning), apparent victory turned out to be for him absolute calamity.

And still, he does not stop, nor even let up.  We can be sure of this.  Just as constantly as he sought to oppose the eternal purposes of God by cutting off the line of promise and preventing the first arrival of Christ in the flesh, so he continues to oppose the work of that Church which Christ established, and to prevent His kingdom from coming in its fulness.  This is not exactly news, is it?  Calvin observes, “Satan is continually striving, by every means, in what way he may hinder or obstruct the edification of the Church!”  Whether we choose to perceive it as the futile thrashings of an already defeated foe, or whether we conclude that he is somehow convinced that victory remains a real possibility, the result for us is little changed.  Satan is always striving to hinder the Church, and you can take that for whatever extent of Church you please.  We can take it at the macro level, and consider the Church universal, the holy, catholic church of the Apostle’s Creed, for it is, as Paul has observed in regard to those he writes to here, something of a constant, isn’t it?  You are suffering the same things they suffer in Jerusalem. 

Beloved, that message has never changed. We may look at our situation and think that by comparison to, say, the persecutions suffered under Roman rule, we have it easy.  And in many ways, we are quite right.  “You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin” (Heb 12:4).  I kind of have to take the full quote, but the same holds when it comes to the persecution of the church in the West, at least for the majority of us.  “You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.”  But there’s no promise that it won’t come to that at some point.  Satan opposes the work of the Church at every turn.

I could look at that, as well, in terms of the corrupting influences that assault the church as to its leadership.  You wonder at the fallen condition of those who lead?  How so?  First off, they are but men such as yourselves, and if you don’t recognize your own capacity for sins every bit as egregious, then perhaps you should spend more time reflecting on your own fallen nature, and less on theirs.  But the wise opponent ever seeks to strike at the head, doesn’t he?  I was watching a series built off of Bernard Cromwell’s series on Sharpe during the Napoleanic Wars.  Somewhere along the way, as he prepares his men for battle, he instructs them to seek out those wearing the uniforms of officers and aim for them first.  Take these out and the general troops will be in disarray.  Some things are universal.  Satan plays the same tactic.  Take out the leadership of the Church, get them to go astray or better yet, to be shown hypocrites and unrepentant sinners, and the sheep will scatter.  It’s the same ploy he pursued at the Cross, and it seemed to work, didn’t it?  He struck the Head, and the sheep scattered.  But the sheep were regathered.

I could look at it in terms of this or that local body, where a pastor has brought strange doctrines into the pulpit, or so watered down the message of the Gospel that he is effectively presenting a lie, even if it comes dressed in quotes from Scripture.  That’s hardly new, is it?  It’s the age-old tactic of his father, the father of lies.  God didn’t really say that, did He?  Is it not written, thus and so?  Well, then, Jesus!  Take Him up on that!  If You are He, show it!  Show off!  Take what is rightfully Yours, and forget about this plan.  Quote the Word, and quote it accurately, but push the meaning off course, and many will see it as the Truth presented.  Wrap the lie around a grain of truth, and it shall pass unnoticed, just like wrapping the dog’s pill in bacon to throw him off the scent.

I could look at this on the personal level, the church which is in us.  We are not immune.  Satan opposes the church at every term, seeks to prevent our edification.  How often do you find yourself reading the Word and not really getting anything from it, just doing your duty and going through the motions?  How often do you set yourself to the purpose of prayer only to find yourself immediately distracted?  How often do you commit yourself in the morning to more closely pursue God’s ways only to be veering off course at your earliest possible convenience?  What’s going on?  Satan is opposing the work of the church.  That doesn’t let you off the hook for your own choices, certainly, but it goes far toward explaining why it proves so difficult to pursue the Way even with God having already given us everything needful for life and godliness.  There is an opponent in the way, throwing up walls, cutting trenches across the road so as to prevent our progress.  And frankly, we are all too ready and willing to see progress halted, for the most part.  Oh good.  A rest stop.  Let’s just kick back, then.

No!  Recognize what is happening.  Resist the devil and he must flee (Jas 4:7).  Submit therefore to God and to His purposes.  Draw near to Him.  Lay hold of His strength.  Recognize these obstacles for what they are, and their source for who he is. 

“In the obstacles, therefore, to the performance of our duty, and in the hindrances of our enjoyment, it is not improper to trace the hand of the great enemy of good,” Barnes observes.  The trouble is, we get to assigning so much to Satan that we start to slide off on the other side of balance, and focus on him and his opposition to such a degree that it all but eclipses God from our sight.  You can see what might come of this.  If Satan’s so powerful, what chance have I?  If he can so easily thwart God’s work in me, how great is this God after all?  And, friend, that is exactly what he would have you think.  See?  God doesn’t have your back.  He doesn’t care about you.  Mind you, I don’t think you’ll find Satan trying to convince you that God doesn’t exist at all, for that would leave him without a throne to usurp.  Where’s the benefit in that?  But if he can convince you that God is some remote, uncaring being, or that He has moved on to other projects and simply lost interest in happenings here on earth, well, then…  Where’s the point to worshiping such a God?  What help can He be to you?

This kind of thinking gets you to the place of testing God.  If He can’t do this for me, why should I do anything for Him?  If He can’t grant my wishes, why not go off after other gods who will?  Why put up with this life of depravation if it gets me nowhere anyway.  None too surprisingly, Scripture does not leave such thinking to fester within us, but gives answer.  “If from human motives I fought with wild beasts in Ephesus, what does that profit me?  If the dead are not raised, ‘let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’  Don’t be deceived!  ‘Bad company corrupts good morals’” (1Co 15:32-33).  Don’t be deceived!  This thought of God as absentee landlord is bad company.  You know better.  You have knowledge of God, true knowledge of the God Who Is, as He is.

If, in fact, you have such knowledge of God, then you know these whispered attacks upon His character are baseless lies and calumnies.  You know Him.  You know that He is God and He alone is God.  There is no other.  You know that there is none to whom He can be required to answer, none who can say to Him, “No!  But you mustn’t do that.”  Rather, you have come to the God Who says, “My word, which goes forth from My mouth, shall not return to Me without accomplishing My desire, succeeding in the matter for which I sent it” (Isa 55:11).  My Word has gone forth.  End of story.  Whatever trials have come your way, and at whatever level, My Word has gone forth.

We must conclude, then, that Paul could (and does) as readily say it was God that did not permit his return.  He has said as much on other occasions.  Why had he gone to Macedonia in the first place?  God did not permit his intended route into Asia.  And he did not set this down to Satan, but to the Holy Spirit.  Here, it is the opposite case, and he sets the cause down to Satan, and not the Holy Spirit.  Has he lost view of God’s sovereignty?  Hardly.  I think we might conclude that for him the distinction was down to the means employed.  In Troas it had been visions in the night, and the Spirit’s involvement was clear.  Here, it was more a matter of opposition, although the specifics of what Paul has in mind are unclear.  Is he thinking about Berea, and the trouble stirred up there?  Is he thinking about the arid response in Athens?  But that didn’t prevent him returning, certainly.  However it was that he was directed from there, it led him not back up to Macedonia, but onward into Achaia.  And arriving in Corinth, when it seemed that this was going to be a repeat of fruitless Athens, God made clear.  “I have many in this city.  They need you.”

You know, I could accept that the lack of fruit in Athens was due to opposition from Satan, a stopping of the ears of those to whom Paul brought news of this God Who Is.  But there is need for setting a boundary here.  If Satan succeeded it is because God permitted.  If Satan was successful in preventing Paul from returning to Thessalonica it was because God had not permitted his return.  Satan cannot disrupt God’s plans, try as he might.  Indeed, it is his somewhat megalomaniacal obsession to do so.  But he can’t.  How it is that he doesn’t know this is beyond me, other than to say that he has managed to even darken his own mind, or more rightly, that God has so darkened his thinking that this reality just doesn’t register with him.

Now some will take this idea that God would so not merely abandon but truly interfere with the capacity of His creatures to perceive Him in any degree of truth to be utterly offensive.  Fair enough.  I do think there is something of a mystery here, in that most theological sense.  God is assuredly not the author of evil, not even in this small degree.  His interference, if we can even rightly call it that, consists in leaving the fallen individual to pursue his desired course, and not interfere.  If Satan, then, is so blinded to reality even as to his own futile efforts, then yes, it is because God has blinded him, but the blinding was yet no more than the natural outcome of Satan’s choices and will.

The same would certainly hold true in the case of Pharaoh, wouldn’t it?  His heart was hardened, and God makes it painfully clear that this hardening was His doing.  Is He saying that had He not done so, Pharaoh might have come to his senses and repented?  I don’t think so.  In essence, what we see is that God did not interfere, but left Pharaoh to his sinful ways.  The same could not be said of Moses, who was, after all, a sinner.  He had murdered, had he not?  His very birth had been a breaking of such law as pertained at the time, albeit not of God’s Law.  And his response to God’s call was hardly some stellar example of holiness, was it?  Oh, no, God.  You’ve got the wrong man.  Find somebody else.  Truly heroic, that is.

What made the difference?  What made Abraham a man of faith when doubts assailed him at every turn, and he was constantly trying to take matters into his own hands.  God did interfere.  What brought the prodigal son back to his father?  God did interfere.  What brought you to salvation, rather than leaving you to join the landslide into oblivion around you?  God did interfere.  And praise God for it!

What prevents you from serving Him in some greater capacity?  What prevents you from boldly proclaiming the Gospel wherever you go, confronting one and all with this most glorious truth of God, given by Him that all whom He is calling might be saved?  Well, let’s see…  There’s your flesh, which is weak.  There’s your overweening self-regard, which in combination with your fragile ego cannot abide the thought of rejection.  There’s societal pressure to shut up and get along.  There’s fear for your livelihood, perhaps.  There’s the opposition of Satan, to be sure.  But it comes, as it comes, only as God’s sovereign will permits.  As such, it comes not to defeat you but to train you, to edify you, to strengthen you.  And know this:  Your failure will remain yours.  You can’t write off your involvement to the devil’s superior ploys.  You chose noncompliance.  You chose to avoid your duty.  You have no more excuse than did Eve or Adam when they were confronted for their breaking of the one law they had to obey.

Satan does his worst to prevent the work of God from proceeding, but he remains utterly subordinate to God.  God ever retains supreme authority.  It cannot be otherwise.  If it were not so, He would not be God, and we should have to find the one who does have supreme authority.  But we have found Him, or rather, He has made Himself known to us.  He has told us who He is.  He has shown us who He is.  And He has made clear that He has chosen us as objects of His love.  This does not give us reason to dismiss all concern for Satan.   It does, however, give us every cause to adjust our perceptions.

The Wycliffe Translators Commentary observes, “Firmly believing in God’s sovereignty, the apostle never minimized the reality of evil.”  No.  No, he did not.  He is forever encouraging his children, his converts to be diligent in pursuit of walking in holiness, in walking worthy of this God Who has saved them.  He is also careful to make clear that this isn’t a matter of earning entrance.  It’s a matter of living a life of thankfulness and gratitude for the entrance that has already been granted.  You have an inheritance in heaven.  This is ever declared with certainty.  It’s never held forth as something you maybe, might just possibly obtain if you work at it hard enough and keep your nose clean.  Still, it’s a matter for diligence, isn’t it?  But it’s a diligence born of love.  It’s the desire to please and honor this One Who has called you His own.  And so, for all that Paul recognizes and makes plain the reality of evil, he does so with an equally clear view of the holistic situation.  As that commentary proceeds to state, “All the efforts of the devil would have accomplished nothing, however, if God had not permitted him to work.”

This we must understand, and understand to our core.  The devil can accomplish nothing that God does not permit.  It has ever been so.  Go back to the earliest writing of Scripture, the book of Job, and you find this to be so.  Sure, go do your worst to this man.  Only, here’s the boundary.  You can’t go farther than this.  The devil is ever on a leash.  It doesn’t seem so from our perspective.  We look around us at world seemingly gone utterly mad, and we can’t be blamed for thinking Satan’s winning, can we?  Well, yes, we can.  We know God.  We should know better.  If we are so convinced that Satan is winning, then, to quote a sermon from long ago, “your God is too small.”

Let me attempt to draw a lesson for us from this.  It is a lesson I am not alone in recognizing.  But it is one we need to be reminded of time and again.  That lesson is simple, really.  God’s providence overrules Satan’s opposition.  That is to say, God’s good providence overrules bad motive.  Whether it’s Satan’s bad motive or our own, the fundamental remains the same:  God’s providence determines outcomes.  This no more alleviates us of guilt for our sinful motives than it alleviates Satan of his.  Evil does as evil is.  But evil done cannot prevent God’s goodness.  His word does not return to Him void, as we have already considered.  So, where’s the application?  Where’s the lesson?

I’ll start with the JFB’s observation that we, finite creatures that we are and not blessed with those gifts of revelation that defined the Apostolic office, cannot generally determine whether some hindrance to our path comes most directly from the Spirit or from Satan.  You see that they qualify with this measure of being most directly from, for we can likely trace the vast majority of such hindrances to the workings of Satan.  But that leaves the question unanswered.  Is it primarily Satan working, and God working around him, or is it Satan working, unwilling as it may be, as the instrument of God’s purpose?  I could argue, I think, that there’s little difference really in those two positions.  For all that, I’m not sure it really calls for any distinction in how we respond.

Ironside offers one possible means of discernment.  “When there are obstacles in our way and we wonder whether it is Satan or God who is hindering us, we need to distinguish between God’s direct will and His permissive will.”  There’s something to this.  We know well enough that there are those occasions when we get so caught up in our own plans and purposes that we all but ignore any guidance from God on the matter.  Or we may pursue a fairly common course, and begin to pursue the path we have chosen, praying that God, if He agrees would open doors for us, and if not, that He would close us off from that path.  And He does, doesn’t He?  I can certainly come up with examples from my own story.  Sadly, I can come up with plenty of others where I pursued the course I chose and didn’t really bother God about it.  I have news for you.  He will still shut the door if He disagrees with the course, for you are His child.  But the door may way well slam shut in your face, rather than the gentle closing and directing that could have been the case.

So, what is Ironside suggesting here?  I should think he is suggesting that rather than wait until we have taken action to seek God’s correction where necessary, we might consider consulting Him first.  Fair enough, I suppose.  Certainly, if we develop a mindset of checking first and then acting, we would avoid the pitfall of neglecting to ask at all.  On the other hand, there is something about that approach that I find off-putting.  Is it my pride, or is it a legitimate concern?  I see those who cannot, it seems, so much as tie a shoe without asking God if that’s what He has in mind for the moment, and it frankly strikes me as infantile.  I don’t see that God is requesting that we remain infantile.  I see, rather, that He encourages us to maturity, as any good father would do. 

Consider this from James.  “To one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin” (Jas 4:17).  Certainly, where there is a clear distinction between options, where one is righteous and one is sinful, this shouldn’t require prayer to decide.  If to act would preserve life and to not act would tend towards harming life, there really should be no need to stop and pray, asking God what His will is in the matter.  It should be nigh on instinctual for us, if in fact our character has been reformed by the Spirit.  If two items are, as best we can discern, equally benign and inconsequential, perhaps things get a bit hazier on this front.  But honestly, I can’t see that God is looking for us to consult Him on every decision right down to what we’re having for dinner tonight.  That, to my thinking, isn’t pious so much as it’s a bit loopy.  But I must consider the possibility that I’m quite incorrect on this point, and allow that my Lord may revamp my thinking should that be the case.

What I see in view here, however, is not a question of benign actions, nor certainly a question of choosing life or death, good or evil.  The concern Paul has is for traveling back to Thessalonica.  But he’s not considering it as a vacation destination.  He’s concerned with matters of ministry.  There, I dare say, the question of whether God should be consulted is eliminated.  Ministry is, first and foremost, service to our Lord, and therefore the actions of a servant.  The servant does not simply do as he pleases.  Now, I must simultaneously observe that the servant who is skilled at his serving may very well know from experience what he is expected to do in this or that circumstance.  He doesn’t need constant oversight.  I recall that image of the servant in the king’s house, who is so attuned to the ways of his master that the slightest hint of inclination already has him moving to comply.  He doesn’t require direct orders because his attention is fully upon the one he serves, and his experience and careful study of this one’s ways has given him a certain intuition when it comes to such things.  This is still something far removed from self-will, or acting presumptuously.  This is a good and faithful servant performing his duties.

Yet, those occasions will arise which are outside the scope of prior experience.  Here, the usual telltales are absent, and what his master might desire to see done is not immediately evident.  In such a case, yes, of course he shall await instruction.  Having done all that he knows he should do, this is now the right and proper course for him.  I do wonder, though, whether when faced with such events, even then he would be asking his master what he should do.  Would this not be impertinent?  Is it not his place to stand at the ready and await instruction, lest by his questions he distract the one he serves from more important matters?

Now, obviously any analogy of this sort has to come up short when we seek to find application of it to heavenly matters.  God, for one thing, is not one to be distracted.  His attention is not so small that our question would prevent Him attending to matters of far greater significance.  But He is our Father.  Can it be other than that He finds Himself pleased to see His children – yes, His servants, but also His children – growing in their understanding of Him, and growing in their capacity to represent Him well from their now innate capacities?  Who among us is not pleased to see their children achieving independence, or concerned when they seem to be slow in doing so?

So, my lesson for us, my most fundamental lesson out of this is not that we need to pester God with every little question of choice that comes up, but rather that when things crop up which strike us as opposition, we have good cause to pause and question why.  And that question must be for us not a matter of trying to discern what Satan is up to, but rather what God is telling us.  It’s well and good to recognize the evil of that opposition, and to acknowledge the enemy of our soul for what he is.  But at the end of the day, we must remember that for all his ferocity, he remains on a leash, and that leash is held by God.  If he is opposing us, whatever his purpose in doing so may be – and I assure you it isn’t from a desire to keep you from harm – his purpose is not the determinative force.  The determinative force lies in God’s will.  What is it He wants?  What is His purpose in preventing this course of action?  Or, perhaps more properly, what is it He would have us to do instead?  I suppose the answer might be nothing, but for such matters of ministry concern as I think are properly in view here, I rather doubt that will prove the case.  That is, unless ‘nothing’ is shorthand for saying, continue on course.

Look once more at what’s up here.  Paul is, or was, contemplating returning to Thessalonica for the express purpose of continuing the edification and discipling of these young believers.  That was his sole interest in going back.  It wasn’t the need for a break from the seemingly fruitless efforts of the present.  For one, he was already now in Corinth, and informed of the fruitfulness ahead.  And he was not yet at that stage where he would realize Corinth was off the rails and in need of serious corrective action.  This was, really, a fairly sweet spot of ministry at the moment; not without its troubles, certainly, but with good results either already in evidence or at least clearly on the horizon.  Some have posited that the difficulties of establishing this Corinthian church were part of that opposition which prevented his return, but I don’t see it.  I don’t think we should find the choice of phrase he has here if this was merely a balancing of local ministry needs against those of a former church plant.  That would be something quite different.  This is blockage.  It might more properly reflect his mindset while still in Berea, or perhaps things considered while in Athens.  But whatever the case, here it is a question of ministry, just as it had been in Troas.  And in such cases, whether answer comes by Spirit-informed dreams or Satan-influenced hindrance, the fundamental remains that God is directing the course of His minister, and His minister does well to recognize it as such, seek his Master’s will, and pursue that, whichever way it may lead.

Ministerial Purpose (11/26/22-11/27/22)

I see that one of the items I have left here to comment upon is really rather a continuation of our previous considerations.  It is a question for us, for me, I suppose.  Can I greet each day as seeking to know what my Lord would have me do with it?  What’s the alternative?  I can simply pursue whatever comes to mind and hope that maybe He will bless my agenda.  That’s certainly easier, although it can lead to more significant disappointment should He find Himself displeased with my pursuits.  And it’s not questions of good or evil, mind you.  It’s simple stuff, really.  Oh, I could look at the pursuits earlier this year of seeing about expanding our back porch, since it needs rebuilding anyway.  Seemed like a fine idea, and it’s not a question, certainly, of whether it is morally acceptable to have a back porch, or to expand it so as to be a bit more functional.  Yet, events made clear that no, this was not a direction we should, or even can, really, travel.  Fine.  A bit disappointing, and a bit of expense going nowhere, but fine.

I could think, as well, of that brief period of dissatisfaction that had me thinking thoughts of relocating to someplace more in keeping with my faith and character, perhaps someplace quieter, with room for a studio more to my liking.  Now, that’s more in the realm of pipe dreams, I suppose, but not entirely outside the scope of possibility.  Give me a solid internet connection, and I could as readily be working from someplace pleasant and peaceful as here.  Why would I not wish to dwell among a people of similar beliefs, given the option?  Or, I might ask, why has God not seen fit to make it so?  Well, I can think of some obvious reasons for that last, like this is the region that has desperate need of godly representation.  This is the place of ministry.  That is the place of selfish delight.  Okay.

But there are smaller things as well, and I think somewhat of Hayden’s example.  He, we are told, would pray at length of a morning before proceeding to his works of composition.  It’s hard for us to imagine such a life even being possible, I think.  This is something far different than the rock and roll lifestyle, certainly.  But here was somebody making his living at the job of creating works of beauty, and paid by kings and nobles to do so.  But he prayed.  He prayed long and hard.  Then he went to his task, and if he found that he could make no progress, that the music simply wasn’t forming in his head or hands, he would return to prayer.  Clearly, he had not as yet heard God as to where this music should go.  Isn’t that something?  For the most part, it’s not as if he were writing music for the church, hymns to teach the people of God, or some such.  Some of his compositions, certainly, took up matters of God and faith, but not all.  Yet, all of them were undertaken with this same concern for God’s direction.

How can we apply this today?  How can I?  If I look at my own attempts at music, certainly nothing to compare with Hayden, what do I do when an idea refuses to become a song?  I set it aside and do something else.  One thing I cannot say I do is to go to prayer and ask God where this song is supposed to go, or if.  I could still accept that it is His guiding Spirit which makes the difference.  There are songs that, no matter how hard I try, never seem to gel.  There are others, such as the one I finished some months back, which may reemerge to my attention after slumbering for years on end, and suddenly, the whole scope of the thing is there and practically pours out.  I could look at the one I wrapped up yesterday, which finally came together when something clicked, and I stopped trying to stuff my saxophone in there, giving its part to the violin instead.  And suddenly, the whole song opened up.

To what shall I attribute these varied results?  Is it my skill and art?  In part, sure.  Is it God at work in me?  Absolutely.  But it’s certainly not, in my case, the active decision to pray first and compose later.  It’s a hobby, not a livelihood.  It’s inconsequential in that regard, though I would account it one of the greatest delights of life to be able to put together music that makes me happy.  It’s not a ministry matter, certainly, other than to the degree it prepares certain skills for use in more ministerial pursuits.

I suppose I could say much the same in regard to these morning studies, couldn’t I?  It’s not direct ministerial pursuit.  I don’t imagine I have any real readership out on the web when I post these things, though I continue to do so.  Who knows?  Nor am I preparing sermons to be preached.  That’s not my role.  At this stage, I’m not even preparing for teaching.  I am preaching, if preaching it be, to an audience of one, and sadly, my audience is often a bit slow of hearing, and slower still of internalizing.  So it is I see again this same question before me:  Can I get to that place of seeking the Lord for my day, and then doing what He would see done, rather than merely chasing my pleasures?  It might just be, I suppose, that my pleasures are His purpose, but I really must come to the place of determining that rather than blithely assuming the privilege.

I want to shift focus just a bit toward the final two verses of this chapter.  This comes as almost celebratory, or would if the setting were just a bit different.  But as it is set, it shows itself to be a matter of consolation and encouragement.  It is another step in seeing them assured that nothing in their experience is evidence of failure on their part.  And so, as the central image of this last part, we have those believers ‘in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming’.  This, Paul observes, is cause for him to rejoice.  Their presence, of which he is assured given their present, will be his joy, his glory, the crowning achievement, if you will, of his service to God.

A brief aside, then, on the matter of His coming.  We are considering the term Parousia, which is probably fairly familiar to us if we’ve been around the church for any time.  It is His return for which we wait, right?  And that more or less fits with the original, first meaning of the word, which speaks of presence or arrival.  We await the arrival of our Jesus, His presence at His return.  So far, so good.  But there is more to the term, and that more is something I think we would be well to keep in view.  Later, it seems, the term took on a more finely detailed meaning, that of a visit of a king.  Well, to be sure, when He comes, it will be more than just a visit.  But it put me in mind of some of the things you hear of in regard to a king’s visit.

Consider, for example, the state of some lord or earl’s house in England when news came that the king and his party were approaching.  Such preparations must be made!  Meals must be planned and foods purchased so as to put on a feast fit for this king.  Folks would pretty near bankrupt themselves to make proper show of honor for the king.  Nothing was to be held back.  Nothing but the best, and perhaps even better than the best would do.  Now, set aside any sort of politicking or intrigue that may have played into such plans.  Stick with the baseline.  The king is coming, and plans to stay here.  Here!  With us!  Preparations must be made.  All must be perfect for him.  There is no room for error.

Let us accept that for many a host or hostess this was done more from fear than from respect, but be that as it may.  The honor shown is the thing.  In human history, there must ever be the question of whether the king was truly worthy of such honor, and there is ever the answer that no, they had their failings.  But we await the visit of the King of kings, the Lord of lords, Him whose name is written, “Righteous and True.”  He alone is worthy, truly worthy, of such honor.  He alone is the ruler and possessor of the whole of Creation.  And all creation waits, we are told, for this visitation, this return of the King to His realm.

And observe that the first time He came riding a donkey, the foal of a donkey, proclaiming peaceful intentions for the lands He conquered.  And make no mistake, He conquered.  Even in death, He conquered.  Retribution would come for those who refused His gentle rule.  It still does.  We had mention of that in the previous part of this very chapter.  Compare and contrast.  Wrath has come upon them to the utmost (1Th 2:16).  But you shall be in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming.  This is the picture being painted.  You will be ready to make welcome your Lord, and He shall be ready to make you welcome in His courts.  The king is coming.  And this time, He rides the white horse of the conqueror.  This time, it shall be take no prisoners.  Every knee shall bow.  Every tongue shall confess.  But for many, the vast majority one suspects, it shall be the bowing confession of the defeated, not the joyous welcome of the relieved citizens of a heaven’s outposts.

I feel I need to hang on this matter of preparation, though.  I could play it against the parable of the ten virgins.  We know it well enough.  There they were, awaiting the bridegroom, awaiting this very Parousia, although the image of our Lord is different in this parable, being as it contemplates not a military campaign but a wedding.  But five of those virgins are ill-prepared, and their lights have gone out before He comes.  They are asleep and in the dark when He returns, and miss the call to join Him.  When they awake to their error, it is too late.  We could consider those who, when He has come, stand before Him declaring their deeds.  “Lord, Lord!  Did we not do this that and the other in Your name?”  And the response?  “Depart from Me.  I never knew you.”  You may have claimed Me, often enough, at least when it suited your purpose.  But I never claimed you.  And beloved, that’s the only claim that matters.

You weren’t preparing My way.  You were feathering your own nest at My expense.  You weren’t preparing a reception suited to My glory.  You were seeking your own.  I think of those directories that used to pop up in churches, back when yellow pages still served a purpose.  Here is your directory of Christian businesses.  These are the ones you should consider first, and trust almost implicitly.  But the reality was almost certainly very different.  These are the ones who paid to get their names before your gullible eyes.  These are the ones who have figured out that claiming faith can bring some business.  Whether they are any more or less reliable, any more or less competent, remains an open question.  Whether they are in fact Christians remains an open question.  But they see opportunity for a bit of profit.  Those days, it would seem, are gone.  But there are plenty yet who would abuse your faith for profit, and sadly, many of those are in pulpits of ostensible churches.

For us, the comfort of this passage should therefore take on considerably more force.  In spite of all this, He has known you, and does know you.  You shall be found standing in the presence of our Lord at His coming.  You are the invited wedding guests, and you have seen to it that you are dressed as befits the occasion.  The bride shall be found ready.  The images compound and pile up, but the point remains:  You shall.

There is, as ever, that tension in this; the tension between resting in the assurance of being in His more than capable hands by His inviolable choosing and it being needful to be ready, watching, striving to walk worthy, and actively engaged in the work of His kingdom, both as concerns the inward work of sanctification and as concerns the outward work of discipleship.  We are not left here to idle.  We are not left here to passively wait for Him to do all the work.  We are left in the realization that apart from Him we can do nothing, but also with the awareness that we are never apart from Him, we who are counted among the elect.  “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb 13:5).  Notice the context.  “Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have.”  His never leaving nor forsaking is the reason for contentment.  It hails back to God’s encouragement to Joshua.  “Be strong and courageous.  Don’t be afraid, and don’t tremble at them.  For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you.  He will not fail you.  He will not forsake you” (Dt 31:6).  Was ever a more joyous message received?  And it is reiterated to the Apostles.  “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20).  But that is not only to the Apostles.  It is to us as well, having been delivered to us through them.  It remains the story of the Church, the story of the elect.  He is ever with us, and as such, we are ever able to do those things to which He has called us.  We are able, because He is here in us, to be ready to stand before Him when He comes in His fulness to stand in all His glory in the midst of the kingdom He has purchased for Himself. 

We shall indeed bow and proclaim Him Lord, but we shall stand again.  Others shall be dragged off to their eternal punishment, but we shall hear that command that so many others heard before us.  “Arise.”  John, on the occasion of receiving his revelation on Patmos, saw this vision of Christ and ‘fell at His feet as a dead man’ (Rev 1:17-19).  He bowed.  Doing so, he confessed this was truly the Lord of lords.  And how did the Lord of lords respond?  “Don’t be afraid.  I am the first, the last, the living One, who was dead but am alive forevermore, having the keys of death and of Hades.  Write what you see; what truly is, and what shall take place.”  Now, John could hardly write with his face pressed to the dirt, could he?  This was a call to arise.  Honor has been done, now serve.

Again, the parallels to those receiving the king at his visit are there.  You would, no doubt, take knee or bow more deeply upon his arrival, but it would serve no purpose to remain so.  The king could not be served if all around him are simply bowed down and trembling.  That part of honor has been done.  The greater part of honor comes in serving, and serving well.  And that, I think, finally moves me off this ostensibly brief aside.

You can see where Paul’s focus is.  Yes, he is assuring them of their secure salvation.  But it is also testimony to his ministerial mindset, his ministerial purpose.  That purpose is not in his own reputation.  That means nothing to him, except insofar as it promotes his true purpose.  His true purpose is to see disciples both made and established.  Numbers converted don’t mean much if they all turn out to be the sort of converts who are all excitement this week, and completely missing every week thereafter.  Adding members to your roles in the church is of no value of those members are never present, and contribute nothing to the work of Christ through the church.  It’s not about making converts.  It’s not a numbers game.  It’s a much more challenging work that God sets us:  that of making disciples.

Making disciples takes time and effort.  It takes, oddly enough, discipline.  It’s a long-haul effort, not the quick and easy delivery of a stirring message and getting a show of hands afterwards.  It’s not the cheap game of roiling emotions to reap an emotional response.  It serious business.  It may often seem a rather boring business.  It doesn’t have the flash of these other approaches, but then, discipline so rarely does, does it?  But it is the necessary work of ministry.  You, standing fast requires that foundations have been laid, training has been given, and you know how to stand.

This means we go beyond delivering sermons, and get at lifestyle.  It means the church moves beyond being some sort of spiritual MASH unit, and moves forward into being a spiritual boot camp.  There is a reason that military service begins with boot camp, and it’s because you need that bootstrapping training before you can be of any use whatsoever.  You need to shed old habits and learn real discipline.  You need to understand command structure and basic duties of the soldier.  Yes, it’s called basic training, too, and for good cause.  Here are the basics.  Here is your foundation.  If you don’t get this down, nothing else beyond this point will be of any use to you.  And frankly, you won’t be of any use to us.  If you can’t get this, you aren’t really suitable material.

Again, analogies can only get us so far.  In the boot camp of Christ, where the recruits are those He has personally sought out and called into service, failing out is not, I don’t think, a real possibility.  But there are always those who have thought to make themselves part of this outfit by their own choosing.  There are always those who are seeking to infiltrate the camp and use it for their own ends.  There are always enemy agents seeking to corrupt and disrupt.  And that just makes it all the more needful that we ourselves are duly discipled and disciplined, and that we are serious about making those who come to us true disciples of Christ.  “Follow me as I follow Christ.”  Is that not the cry we inherently hear from Paul?  You saw how we lived, and you set yourselves to live as we do.  You heard the Gospel from us, saw that we not only spoke it, we exemplified it, and you recognized that here is your own calling.  So, stand fast, for you standing fast shall be as a crown of victory to us.

No, strike the ‘for’.  This is not reason to stand fast, nor is it Paul’s intent.  He is not setting this out as cause for compliance on their part, but rather as confirmation of their existing status.  You are our glory and joy.  You will be there in the presence of the Lord at His coming.  You have been established, and you will stand fast.  Victory is not a matter of Paul’s efforts nor of their reception.  Victory is in the Lord.

Now, I have to say that this presents something of a mixed situation for the minister, doesn’t it?  And it’s something that again, pretty much every one of the commentaries takes note of.  Take Matthew Henry, for example.  “Ministers and people must all appear before Him, and faithful people will be the glory and joy of faithful ministers in that great and glorious day.”  Or have something similar from Adam Clarke.  “Converts to Christ are our ornaments; persevering believers, our joy in the day of judgment.”  I notice a slight distinction there.  There are ornaments, and there is joy.  Converts are ornaments.  But if they don’t prove lasting disciples, I must suppose they are but costume jewelry, and of no real value for all their sparkle.  On the other hand, there are those persevering believers.  They may not be as flashy, but they are the real thing.

It puts me in mind of a couple of rings I have had cause to buy for my beloved wife over the years.  The two are relatively similar in style, and both sport similar stones.  But one is a synthetic stone.  It’s brighter.  It’s color is perhaps a bit more vibrant.  But it does not share the same value as that other one which, for all that it is darker of color, is in fact the real stone.  One is an ornament.  The other perseveres.  Okay.  I’m stretching that example, but why not?

Let me add Barnes to the mix.  “The source of happiness to a minister of the gospel in the day of judgment will be the conversion and salvation of souls.”  I feel the need to insert a ‘true’ in there before minister.  If in fact this is a true minister of the gospel, and not an opportunist or some such, then surely, this is their true happiness.  Nothing else can satisfy but to know that as instruments in the hands of God, they have been used to make not mere conversions, but lasting disciples truly possessed of their salvation in Christ Jesus.  This is not the minister taking credit for what God does.  It is the minister thankful to have been made part of what God does.  And I am very sure that ministers in particular are in need of encouragement such as this.  Calvin observes it.  Their encouragement is that they shall, in proportion to how they have promoted the kingdom of God, partake of glory and triumph at His return.

Now, in a rather felicitous bit of timing, it happens I have been making my slow way through Jonathan Edwards’ parting message to the church in Northampton, and it is difficult on a few levels.  For one, his writing is rather more dense than the typical sermon of our day, and I should think rather longer, as well.  It is something of a scholarly read, which should give us pause at the outset.  Northampton does not strike me as a particularly erudite settlement.  It would have still been something of a frontier town, I should think, when he was preaching this sermon, as well as those others for which he is better known.  But these are lengthy, outlined, position papers, thick with doctrinal teaching and presented in a rather professorial fashion.  In this case, the difficulty increases due to the subject matter.  He is spending much time on this scene that Paul has in view at the end of this chapter; that time when pastor and flock shall reunite, for however brief a time, under the examination of the Lord.  He spends a great deal of time exploring the difference in how pastor and congregation relate now, and how they shall encounter one another then.  Now, everything is subject to misunderstanding and incompleteness of information.  Then, the Truth shall be fully known.  Did he preach truly?  The truth will out.  Were these true believers, devout in their faith?  The truth will out.  All will be made known, and made known to all.  That would appear to be the basic thrust of this sermon.  I know I’ve read it before, and felt it had something of an accusatory flavor.  If memory serves, the parting of Edwards from this church was not a particularly sanguine event.  But I may be misinterpreting things.  Time will tell.

To my present point, though, here is the scene before Paul, and before us.  Ministers and their flocks shall encounter one another, in his view at least, and shall finally and fully know the truth of one another.  Well, certainly, if you see those you thought faithful and true believers being shunted off to the left, into the goat camp, you can be certain of their falseness.  I cannot speak to how one will feel about that.  I suppose there must be a sense of having failed them, but then, that is taking too much upon oneself and leaving insufficient room for the determinative will of Christ.  And where His will has said, “No.  Not this one,” can the minister truly find cause for regret at His decision?  Is it not more likely to be as it was with Aaron when his sons were rejected?  It is not for you to mourn, Aaron.  My glory is being upheld, and you are My representative.  How shall you contemplate weeping if I am glorified?

But there is also that encouragement.  There is the joy of seeing those you raised in Christ found standing when judgment has come.  They have been sent to the right, to the column of lambs, to enter into the joy of their King.  And it can only be hoped and expected, in such a case, that the minister shall likewise find himself in that column.  Shall there be rewards given for service rendered?  It seems so, yes.  But it also seems to me a rather secondary consideration, at least from this perspective.  Is not the sight of these your charges successfully entered into the kingdom already reward beyond measure?  Is this not already your crown of exultation, and one which you gladly deposit at the feet of your Lord and King?

Yet, there is that parable of the talents, isn’t there?  Insufficient workmanship is demonstrated in those who do no more than come before Him intact, returning to Him that which was His already.  Indeed, if that parable be taken at face value, such a one will not be entering in after all.  It was a false security he had, a false belief in his status as being redeemed.  He never really knew his Lord, and the Lord never knew him.  So, let’s have Ironside’s input.  And here, I think, we move from the consideration of those we set apart in the vocation of ministers and our general condition as a kingdom of priests unto our Lord.  How sad, he observes, if we should come to this day with no crown to share with our Lord.  How sad, if we arrive before His throne never having spoken of His glorious majesty to somebody who needed to hear it.

How sad if we have done nothing of lasting value.  That’s what it comes down to.  A family raised, an inheritance stored up here in the present?  These are not evils, certainly, but they are little real value, aren’t they?  However much we have squirreled away for their future, the future will outlast that supply.  Whatever name we may have made for ourselves, whatever statues may have been put up to honor our contributions to society, or whatever inventions might bear our name, memory of it will fade.  Statues that have been put up get torn down, as we have seen too often in recent years.  Artwork that has been esteemed for ages will one day fall into disrepute and be covered over and destroyed.  Inventions that were lifechanging in their day become mere nothings, not even deserving of a footnote in the textbook.  And still, eternity barely begins to unfold.  These things don’t matter.  What matters is only this:  Did you give them the gospel, and help them who received it to grow?  Did you make disciples?

Let me temper this somewhat.  I really don’t see that the ‘go and make’ part applies universally to every individual in the church.  We have that matter of being members of the body, each with different function, and I don’t see that this evangelistic thrust is any different in that regard.  “Some are given as evangelists” (Eph 4:10).  Not all, some.  We could no more surmise that all are to be evangelists from that passage than that all are to be apostles or prophets.  If there is a call given to all it is this:  To equip one another for service, to build one another up in this body of Christ.  But that leaves each to his own role in that body.  The hand is not to be encouraged to take on foot duties, nor the foot the duties of a nose.  They are encouraged to contribute their own part and function to the benefit of the whole.

In this light, I would suggest that the work of discipling, which perhaps falls more into the duties of the teacher, is something different than the work of evangelism.  A different work seems likely to fall to a different member of this body.  Others may be equipped more for encouragement than training, others still for organization, and so on.  To try and push members into those things for which they are not equipped or meant seems to me an activity worse than counterproductive.  It is abusive after its fashion.  It is one thing to encourage those gifts which God has imparted to His children, that they may flourish and be put to their proper use.  It is quite another to seek to insist that all be possessed of the self-same gifts.  That latter would seem to me to fly in the face of what we have set before us in these revelations we call Scripture.  If in fact God has ordained unique talents among His children, who are we to insist on homogenization?

All that being said, the concern remains.  How sad if we come before Him having failed to put our talents to any purposeful use in His kingdom.  What sort of joy and glory should we expect if we have done nothing for His glory?  What sort of reception should we anticipate who have given Him no joy?

Father, the tension is there, and the concern that certainly as concerns my recent years, there has been little to which I could point and say it was done for You.  I am certainly no evangelist, not in my estimation.  If I am wrong in my perspectives here, correct me.  Let me not continue in my error.  If I am right, let me be more diligent to set my gifts to Your purposes.  I would not find in that day of Your return that I have done nothing of worth for You, yet I fear that could well prove the case.  Have I been silent when I should have spoken?  Doubtless.  Have I spoken when I should have remained silent?  Equally doubtless.  Have I been neglectful of Your leading?  We both know it.  But am I Yours?  Of this I am yet confident, and I pray it is no false confidence.  That You called is not a matter for doubt.  It was far too conclusive for that.  But what have I done for You lately?  That’s not a comfortable question.  What can I do for You today?  I pray I may serve You in some capacity, and do so well.  If it is only by contributing my notes to Your worshipful praises, may I do so with skill beyond my meager abilities, and do so with an earnestness of heart that desires only to offer You my best, however poor an offering that may make.  And may You be pleased to accept it, and to make of it something of far greater worth.  I love You, and I confess I don’t always know how to express that well.  I honor You, though it seems I fail too often to bring honor to You.  I set myself, therefore, under Your discipline.  Do Thou as You must, that I may be useful to You, and give You some return on all that You have invested in me.