SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/23/2019 9:35 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “Explanation of a Pastor/Teacher”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
4:11
Message of the verse: “11 And He gave
some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as
evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,”
This
Spiritual Diary will be a bit different than the others that we have done from
this verse in Ephesians chapter four. It
is my practice for some time now to make Saturday a day that I pray for the
Pastors of our church, and I do this from a prayer sheet that I learned when I
was studying Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians. I will only quote the first page and a half
from this prayer sheet and the reason that I am doing this is because that part
of this prayer sheet gives us functions that a Pastor/Teacher should be
doing. Now the word “Elder” does come up
on this prayer sheet, but as we have been learning this is the same office as
Pastor/Teacher.
“Those called to be elders in the church, who
preach, teach and lead God’s flock, are entrusted with the unequalled duty of
proclaiming the gospel to unbelieving sinners, and bringing those who believe
and are baptized into the fellowship of the local church. There the Holy Spirit will sanctify them as
they worship God in spirit and truth, submitting to the exposition and
application of Scripture. Pastors also
must intercede for their people through public and private prayer, oversee the
administration of the Lord’s Table so their people will regularly confess their
sins and renew their covenant of obedience, equip other teachers and workers
within the church, superintend and enforce church discipline, and provide
biblical counseling to the congregation.
All of this spiritual work is to build up the saints to maturity—‘to the
measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ’ (Eph. 4:13).
“The elder must be a spiritual physician who can
capably apply biblical cures to those vices and heresies that might afflict
members of his church. He also must be a
tender shepherd who, while feeding the flock, also heals their wounds, clams
their fears, protects them from spiritual dangers, and comforts them in their
distresses. In short, he is to be a
champion for biblical truth (1 Tim. 4:12), a provider of spiritual resources (1
Peter 5:1-2), a guardian and protector (Acts 20:28-31), and always a model of
spiritual virtue (1 Tim. 4:12), for all of which he is directly accountable to
his Lord Jesus Christ (Heb. 13:17; James 3:1).
“Even the uniquely gifted apostle Paul asked the
question, ‘And who is adequate for these thing?’ (2 Cor. 2:16). He realized that no man could effectively
discharge the immense obligation of spiritual leadership by human wisdom,
effort, and strength alone. He knew that
only God could provide the power to be an effective leader, although he
struggled with his flesh and found himself not doing the things he wanted to do
and doing the things he did not want to do (Rom. 7:14-25). God graciously gave him suffering and pain to
continually humble him and make him dependent on divine power (2 Cor.
12:7-10).”
“If Paul is the ideal human model of one with a
pastor’s heart, that is only because he carefully patterned his pastoral
ministry after that of Jesus Christ, who perfectly modeled the pastor’s heart
during His earthly ministry. He was the
ultimate example of affection for His sheep (John 10:11-16, 27-28),
unselfishness for His disciples (John 13:3-17), compassion for His people (John
11:33-44; cf. Matt. 23:37-39), protectiveness toward His lambs (John 10:2-5),
delight for His church (Matt. 16:18-19), gratitude for His followers (Matt.
11:25-30), and intercession for His beloved children (John 17:6-26). That model of the shepherd’s heart is the
divine standard for all pastors today.”
Quotation
of the day: “Pray the largest
prayers. You cannot think a prayer so
large that God in answering it will not wish you had made it larger. Pray not for crutches but wings” (Phillips
Brooks).
3/23/2019
9:45 AM
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