[The Pastor] may be able to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict – Titus 1:9
As I wrote in my last post, some have come to me with a curious desire to be a pastor. This is good. It all begins with having an inner desire (cf. 1 Tim. 3:1). But the inner desire is only the beginning. Next, is a huge part in becoming a pastor and that has to do with meeting the qualifications listed for holding such an Office. Finally, the next thing to closely look at is the type of work that pastors are to perform.
Now watch this – out of the list of qualifications mentioned in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, the only one listed that is not listed in terms of character is the phrase, “able to teach” (1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:9).
So, if anyone reading this blog is seeking the office of a pastor, then here are the standards the bible gives:
1. An inner desire – 1 Tim. 3:1
2. Godly Character – 1 Tim. 3:2-7; Titus 1:6-9
3. The ability to teach – 1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:9
Note: There is no voice calling from heaven; no special sign or dream given in one’s sleep; no near death experience that awakens the soul for such a task. Of course, God can certainly use such things, but my point is this: If you hear a voice from heaven calling you to be a pastor, but you do not meet the qualifications mentioned in both Timothy and Titus, I can assure you the voice you heard was not God. If you had a special dream or were given a miraculous sign all pointing to you being a pastor, but you are not able to teach the Word, dismiss such things. It wasn’t of God.
When the hoopla of emotional ecstasy has settled, those three indicators mentioned above will shine bright and never be removed or diminished. If any one of the three are diminished, then I personally would not put much faith in your experience. The Lord will never contradict His Word by giving you an experience that goes contrary to sound doctrine.
Spending time in God’s Word daily is not an option for the one called to the office of Overseer. And as I mentioned in my past post, I am not talking about merely having one’s daily devotions. Your day must be consumed with the Word. You will do all you can do fight and wrestle for every bit and ounce of time needed to feed your soul on God’s Word and to tread in deep water. Your people must understand that when you offer to them the Word of God, you have no Plan B. Plan A is the Bible and if the bible is not embraced and you begin to see people leave your church, you will be tested to see if you do come up with a Plan B.
For some, Plan B is the Bible plus something else, usually it will involve something of the world to some measure. You have to be committed in your heart and mind that it is only the Word of God that is totally inspired and therefore, profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness. Why is this necessary? So that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work (cf. 2 Tim. 3:16-17).
Don’t try to be cute and walk the edge mingling the Word of God with worldly ideas. You got to bring your people to Christlikeness, not what you think is the likeness they should have. Only by feeding them God’s Word will you help them to achieve this to the glory of God.
You won’t hear psychiatrists, such as John White put it this way:
Until about fifteen years ago psychology was seen by most Christians as hostile to the gospel.
[But today] let someone who professes the name of Jesus baptize secular psychology and present it as something compatible with Scripture truth, and most Christians are happy to shallow theological hemlock in the form of psychological insights.
Over the past fifteen years there has been a tendency for churches to place an increasing reliance on trained pastoral counselors. . .To me it seems to suggest weakness or indifference to expository preaching within evangelical churches. . .Why do we have to turn to human science at all? Why? Because for years we have failed to expound the whole Scripture. Because from our weakened exposition and our superficial topical talks we have produced a generation of Christian sheep having no shepherd. And now we are damning ourselves more deeply than ever by our resource to the wisdom of the world.
What I do as a psychiatrist and what my psychologist colleagues do in their research of their counseling is of infinitely less value to distressed Christians than what God says in His Word. But pastoral shepherds, like the sheep they guide, are following (if I may change my metaphor for a moment) a new Pied Piper of Hamelin who is leading them into the dark caves of humanistic hedonism.
A few of us who are deeply involved in the human sciences feel like voices crying in the godless wilderness of humanism, while the churches turn to humanistic psychology as a substitute for the gospel of God’s grace (Flirting with the Word, pp. 144-17).
Folks, those are some powerful words. But so true and so right on. That’s why a solid commitment to teach God’s Word expositionally (which is the ability to explain the Scriptures of its meaning and not merely disseminate application at the expense of meaning and understanding) is a major task for all pastors.
Read what John Stott said:
Expository preaching is a most exacting discipline. Perhaps this is why it is so rare. Only those will undertake it who are prepared to follow the example of the apostles and say, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the Word to serve tables. . .We will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word” (Acts 6:2, 4). The systematic preaching of the Word is impossible without the systematic study of it. It will not be enough to skim through a few verses in daily bible reading, nor to study a passage only when we have to preach from it. No. we must daily soak ourselves in the Scriptures. We must not just study, as through a microscope, the linguistic minutiae of a few verses, but take our telescope and scan the wide expanses of God’s Word, assimilating its grand theme of divine sovereignty in the redemption of mankind. “It is blessed,” wrote C.H. Spurgeon, “to eat into the very soul of the Bible until, at last, you come to talk in Scriptural language, and your spirit is flavored with the words of the Lord, so that your blood is Bibline and the very essence of the Bible flows from you” (The Preacher’s Portrait, pp. 30-31).
So when Paul told Titus that the pastor must be able to exhort in sound doctrine this is what he had in mind. This is the positive side of the calling. But there is a negative side as well. That side we will look at shortly.
