skip to main |
skip to sidebar
From time to time for various reasons Elders are going to need to find a Preacher to serve the congregation. Elders should not be caught by surprise by this and have to scramble around at the last minute to trying to find someone. Elders should develop a list of Preacher prospects and develop a relationship with those Preachers.
I had a Preacher tell me that he got plenty of offers but invariably declined because he was not familiar with a particular congregation. So its not just developing a wish list of Preachers its also about investing in a relationship.
Since I have been at Parkway we have had six men preach for the congregation. The longest one was here for thirty years.
Many years ago when I was a Deacon and the Elders were looking for a man an Elder told me… “Rob, we don’t want to look for a guy that is looking for a position… we want to find a guy that is doing a good job somewhere and make a run at him”.
Also an Elder told me years ago that you don’t want a guy that stays with a congregation for a few years and then moves on. The same Elder told me that we should take a look at all the congregations where the man has formerly preached to see how they were doing. Were the congregations growing or declining?
At Parkway we have in the past brought in younger Preachers to preach three lessons on a Sunday. They didn’t know it but they were interviewing for a future job. In fact anytime we have a Gospel Meeting its like a secret job interview. That’s one way to develop a prospective list of Preacher candidates.
FYI, there are no perfect Elders and there are no perfect Preachers either. There is such a thing in baseball as a “Five Tool Player”… hitting for average, hitting for power, base running speed, throwing arm strength and fielding ability.
Generally a “Five Tool Preacher’ is good in the pulpit, good in classroom settings, is hospitable and is good at personal work. Those guys are as rare as hen’s teeth. If you have one hold onto him.
A Preacher told me once that a lot of times a Preacher will move to another congregation because that’s the only way a Preacher can get a raise. So often times, if Elders are not taking care of their talent the talent will move on. The Elders helped create the problem through neglect.
I also had a Preacher tell me that most Preachers he knew were on some kind of psychological medication… like maybe they couldn’t live up to the congregations expectations and were continually criticized with little positive reinforcement and it had an effect.
When the congregation selects Elders they by commandment have to look at the behavior of the Elder candidate’s family… do they respect his headship, etc. Makes sense to apply that rule when considering a Preacher as well.
Elders most important work is the local congregation and the Preacher position is vitally important to the health of a congregation. Let’s not take that lightly and lets not shoot ourselves in the foot by neglecting out current Preachers and lets also be prepared and not get caught short when it comes time to find a new preacher.
All my life I have been taught that as Christians we don’t celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ because… no one knows the exact date when Jesus was born and there is no authority in the Holy scriptures to celebrate Jesus’ birthday… we celebrate his death (Lord’s Supper) not his birth.
These arguments began to fall apart for me especially when one of my employees who visited services asked about why we didn’t celebrate Christmas and I trotted out my well rehearsed answer… well know one really knows when Jesus was born so we can’t celebrate it. She responded… I don’t know when my dog was born but we still have a birthday celebration for him.
Then I got to considering just what happened when Jesus was born… an Angel of the Lord appeared to Shepherds and told them about the birth of Jesus and they went to go see the newborn Christ. Their experience caused them to glorify and praise God at the sight of the new born baby boy. On that same occasion (along with the Angel) a “multitude of the heavenly host” praised God.
God led the wise men from the east with a star to go see the newborn King. At the sight of baby Jesus they fell down on their knees and worshipped him and gave gifts… gold, frankincense and myrrh.
So it does seem to me that their is authority to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. God (after all) orchestrated it. The celebrants of the birth of Jesus were the Angel, the Heavenly Host, Shepherds and wise men. Their celebration included words and acts of praise and gifts.
So in my opinion there is general authority to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. We are at liberty however in regards to the specifics of how that celebration plays out.
In Corpus Christi, beginning in November, 93.9 am radio plays nothing but Christmas music until after Christmas. When I hear “Silent Night”, “Oh Holy Night” and the “First Noel” my emotions are stirred thinking about the birth of my Lord and Savior and I usually join in with the singing. What a wonderful thing.
I wonder if Jesus would be offended if in Heaven one day I knelt before his throne and sang “Oh Holy Night” to Him?
Mary and Joseph had at least seven children together; Jesus (the oldest), James, Joseph, Simon, Judas and sisters (Matthew 13:55). More children if Jesus had more than two sisters.
Imagine the dilemma of Mary and Joseph… do you have a conversation with Jesus’ brothers and sisters about Mary’s impregnation and the events that took place at Jesus’ birth or do you leave that topic alone?
Apparently they chose not to tell Jesus’ siblings because there is no evidence that the siblings believed in Jesus until after his resurrection. The real question is did Joseph and Mary have those conversations with Jesus?
My guess is that Mary and Joseph (especially in Jesus’ formative years) never had that conversation with Jesus.
Would it be intimidating having a son who you knew to be the future Messiah? Would you be worried about showing favoritism? How could you suppress those feelings so you don’t do a parental disservice to your other children?
Luke 2:52 says that Jesus grew in body and wisdom, i.e. he didn’t have instantaneous knowledge and wisdom. It grew in him as he grew.
Philippians 2 states that Jesus “emptied himself" (of his deity). Just how much did he empty himself? All of his deity or some of his deity? Could Jesus have performed miracles before his Baptism and his reception of the Holy Spirit? My guess is that he could not and even if he could it wasn’t the right time to do so.
Consider that Joseph must have died at some point. He might have gotten sick and died or he might have just died abruptly making Mary a widow. Joseph was the only earthly father Jesus had ever known. That event must have been very traumatic. Certainly Jesus would have cried and shared tears with his mother, brothers and sisters. Nothing binds a family together like the loss of the patriarch of the family.
Here’s the question… if Jesus had the power to heal or restore life prior to his baptism and reception of the Holy Spirit then why didn’t he do so for Joseph? Why like at the wedding feast didn’t Mary say… do it… save him?
My guess is Jesus had to lead a perfectly normal human life (including the loss of a parent) to be “tempted in every way that we are yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15) and that must mean Jesus emptied himself of his deity (Philippians 2) and his power to work miracles.
Jesus had at least six brothers and sisters. I suspect he never played the deity card with any of them or with his earthly parents. His true nature was ultimately revealed when he was resurrected and seated in glory at the right side of God the Father. Then Jesus’ brothers and sisters could clearly see the deity of their brother and like Mary become believers.
I was wondering the other day just when Satan figured out that Jesus was the Messiah and Son of God. The case can be made that Satan didn’t know until Jesus was Baptized, received the Holy Spirit and was announced by God that He was his beloved Son.
Certainly in the revealed narrative of Jesus’ early life Satan is not mentioned even once... not once. One might think that if Satan knew Jesus was the Messiah that his attempts at temptation might have occurred sooner than when Jesus was thirty years old.
So either Satan didn’t know who Jesus really was or God was protecting Jesus from Satan.
What we do know for sure about Satan was that he really didn’t understand God’s plan or the nature of Jesus’ Messiahship. If Satan had known he would never have been complicit in manipulating people like Judas to effect the death of Jesus Christ.
Satan had great delight seeing Jesus tortured and dying on the cross. It was a really good day for him but when God raised Jesus from the dead and seated him at his right side (in great triumph and victory) and poured his Holy Spirit upon all believers Satan’s day went from “good” to disastrous. Sad Satan.
Jesus’ first thirty or so years of life were normal and uncomplicated by Satan but his last three years (or so) of life had Satan actively campaigning against him… campaigning in a war of futility. Satan can never win against God and he can’t win against us either if we have God’s Holy Spirit protecting us.
John 1 introduces several themes that are expanded upon throughout the rest of John’s Gospel.
Things like… Jesus (the Light) came into a world enveloped in darkness. He brought “life” into that world and the “life” was the “light” of all men. To those who accepted it and believed they acquired the right to become sons of God. To those who rejected that light (including Jesus’ own people… the Jews) they lost that right. Keep in mind those in darkness included followers of the Law of Moses.
John 1 is personified in John 9.
Consider the man born blind. He was literally in darkness because he was blind. Jesus gave him vision and for the first time he saw light and believed in Jesus the light and the giver of light. According to John 1 he became a son of God.
But there is another character (or characters) in John 9… the Pharisees because they too were exposed to the “Light”. But the Pharisees were different than the blind man. They couldn’t swallow that miracle. They chewed and chewed on the idea that Jesus actually performed a “sign” and ended up rejecting Jesus the Light because it didn’t square with their view of the Law of Moses. You see… Jesus worked that “sign” on a Sabbath Day.
So they rejected the Light and instead of becoming Sons of God became Sons of Hell.
The Gospels are full of the Light of Jesus Christ… read them, study them and accept the Light so you too may be Sons (and daughters) of God.
When considering the death of early disciples who were murdered viciously we think about people like John the baptist (Imprisoned and beheaded), Stephen (stoned to death) James the Apostle (beheaded), etc.
Here’s the thing… everyone is going to die… everyone. But very few of us get to choose how we die… it’s always some level of surprise.
Jesus’ disciples knew they that they would all die violent deaths (because of their faith in Jesus Christ). They chose to die that way.
They weren’t going to die in bed of organ failure or some infectious disease. They wouldn’t die accidentally in a chariot crash. They wouldn’t die of cancer or of Alzheimer’s disease…. they would die through the hands of violent men.
What honor is there in dying due to natural causes after all? Almost none. But living a life for Jesus Christ and giving up that life in a way that mimics Jesus’ death would be a very honorable death.
If you ask most people how they would like to die many would say they would like to live to a ripe old age and die in their sleep with no pain.
I would like to live to a ripe old age as well but if I could choose how I would die I wish I could go back in a time machine and be nailed to a cross right next to Jesus and at his death and mine enter into Paradise with my Lord and Savior holding my hand.
Dying with Jesus would be a death of the highest honor. There is none higher.
The disciples manner of death was chosen for them and they accepted it with gladness. We can’t choose how we will die but we can choose how we will live and how we choose to live also brings great honor no matter how we die.
Choose honor.
In John 3 we read of a Pharisee named Nicodemus coming to Jesus and making the statement… “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God because no one can do the signs that you do”
Before we go any further with this lets go back and see what Nicodemus knew that might have prompted this visit and statement. Undoubtedly Nicodemus knew of the teachings of John the Baptist who was preparing the way for the coming of the Messiah and the establishment of the Kingdom.
In addition, in the preceding verses we have record of Jesus being in Jerusalem at the Passover. Nicodemus may have himself witnessed Jesus “cleansing” the Temple. Nicodemus must have heard of Jesus prophesying the destruction of the Temple and Nicodemus knew of the “signs” or miracles that Jesus performed at the Passover.
So when Nicodemus states to Jesus…
“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God because no one can do the signs that you do”
He is really asking… Jesus are you the Messiah and are you about to establish your Kingdom?
(Keep in mind Nicodemus has a faulty premise of what the Kingdom would look like)
Nicodemus’ inferred question dovetails exactly with Jesus’ answer. Because in Jesus’ answer he gives details about the coming of the Kingdom and it’s nature and Jesus’ Messiah-ship.
Namely…
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son (Jesus the Messiah) that whosoever believeth on him (condition of entry) should not perish but have eternal life (nature of Kingdom). John 3:16
Sometimes like Nicodemus we may not be smart enough to ask exactly the right question (and Jesus understands that) but Jesus is patient and his answers are always simple and understandable.
Pray for understanding and let not your hearts be troubled.
