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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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Recognizing True Ministers |
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Deuteronomy
18: 15-22 Passion
Sunday March
9, 2008 Deuteronomy consists of a series of sermons preached to the Hebrew people in the wilderness just before their crossing into the Promised Land. Moses, the preacher, knowing he would not be going into the land with them, and, having been their leader for more than forty years, wanted to speak to them, almost as a father to his children, to prepare them for the journey ahead and to exhort them to be faithful to the Great God of their Salvation. As we read his words we can almost hear the concern in his voice as he spoke them. Would the Hebrews resist temptation? Would the land of milk and honey make them soft and weak and unwilling to discipline themselves to walk after God? Would they become ensnared in the sins and vain philosophies of the Canaanites? After maintaining their faith through 400 years of Egyptian slavery and 40 years in the wilderness, would they still be recognizable as the people of God in another generation? These are the things Moses must have pondered in his heart as he prepared to say good-bye and send them on their way. He was going home. He had labored long and well, and he was going to be with God in that great land where no sorrows hurt and no tears fall. Theirs would be the task of entering the land, and subduing it. Theirs would be the great spiritual battle with the wanton temptations of the flesh, encouraged and even worshiped by the Canaanites. Their lives and trials and hopes and defeats, and triumphs were still in front of them; and, difficult as it would have been for them to believe, the trials, temptations, and battles would be far greater in the Promised Land than they had been in the desert. How could they go on without him? What would they do? How will they fare? It is as much, I think, to comfort Moses as to comfort the Hebrews that God says through Moses; “The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet
from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall
hearken,” (Dt. 18:15). As Moses tells the Hebrews about the prophet that will come, he also tells them how to distinguish a true prophet from a false prophet. Much of what he says here still applies, so today I want to talk about recognizing a true minister of God. First and foremost, a true minister is a believer. The prophet who would follow Moses was to be raised up “from the midst of thee, of thy brethren.” He was to be a member of the household of faith. God was not going to place the mantle of the prophet on a man who did not know what God had done for Israel, who knew not the Law of God, who knew not the worship and the will of God. He must be a man of the faith, a man of God. In New Testament language we would say he must be a regenerate man. Or, to use Christ’s own words, he must be “born again.” The reason for this is clear. “We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen,” (Jn. 3:11). A teacher cannot teach what he doesn’t know. A guide can’t lead if he doesn’t know the way. A man, a fragile human being, cannot presume to teach others about Christ if he knows not Christ himself. The minister of God must first of all know God. This may seem self-evident, yet much harm has been done by men who took to themselves the task of preaching Christ without first knowing Christ. I remember hearing a man, a minister in the Church of England, say he had made that mistake. His motivation for entering the ministry was to bring the church out of its “superstitions and myths” and help it start doing something worthwhile in the world, like feeding the hungry and helping the poor. But he noticed that his job often included being with people in times of sorrow and grief. At such times they turned to him, the “man of God,” expecting to hear words of comfort and hope, but he had none to offer. What help could he be at a funeral, he said, when he believed life was a meaningless absurdity, and that we die like a dog and that is the end of us? I would submit to you this morning that one of the major reasons for the deplorable state of many churches is that they are led by people who do not know Christ. One of the major reasons for the empty liberal theology, the theology of despair that we hear from so many pulpits, is that the person in the pulpit does not know the hope and peace of Jesus Christ, who is Himself the way the truth and the life, and the only hope of souls who are lost in the darkness and despair of this world. Next, the true minister is orthodox. God told Moses that the prophet, the true prophet would “speak unto them all that I shall command him,” (Dt. 18:19). God also said some very fearful things about those who speak things God has not commanded. Read Deuteronomy 18:19- 22 again this afternoon, and tremble for those who preach contrary to the revelation of God. Understand also the context of these words. God, in Deuteronomy18:9-12, had just spoken, through Moses, about the abominations of the pagans in the land of Canaan. In 18:15-22 God was saying that there would be those of the house of Israel who would presume to speak for God, and would actually bless those abominations in His name. Israel would constantly face the temptation to compromise the word of God. They would always face the temptation to mix the religion of the Lord with the religions of the pagans, and there would be no shortage of prophets pronouncing that such mixing was the true will of God. But the true will of God is not to adapt the pagan ways, but to purge them out of the Church. “But the prophet which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die,” (Dt. 18:20). Likewise, the Apostle Paul writing to the Galatians said, “though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed,” (Gal 1:8). It is not the prerogative of the man in the pulpit to decide for himself what he will believe and preach. It is not his task to modernize the Christian faith, as many have tried to do, to make it more attractive to the “un-churched.” As St. John warns us not to add or delete from the prophesy given to him, (Rev. 22:18-19) so his warning applies to all of Scripture, and to all who would dare stand in the pulpit and attempt to preach the word. Again, this would seem so self-evident as to need no mention, yet many have entered the ministry with the intent to change the faith. “Christianity must change or perish,” they have cried. And so, today, our most devastating opposition to the pure gospel of Christ comes not from the world of unbelievers, but from those within the “church” preaching a new gospel and a new faith in the name of Christ. Again I say with sorrow that one of the major causes of the weakness in the church and in the lives of many professing “Christians” is the unorthodox people in the ministry. Today gimmicks and entertainment are substituted for the Gospel of Christ. Emotionalism passes for worship. A shallow, self-help gospel, or a gospel of peace and justice is preached in place of the Bible. Why? The ministers have abandoned the truth. The ministers have compromised the Bible to please the people. They have spoken a word in God’s name that God has not commanded them to speak. They have become false prophets. Finally, a true minister is called. Not only one, but hundreds and thousands of Godly ministers were raised up by God to serve His people. Joshua, Samuel, David, Elijah, Isaiah, Joel, Ezekiel, are but a few in the succession of prophets, priests, and kings who served as God’s ministers right down to the very days of Christ, The Prophet. We all know that the prophets and priests of the Old Testament era were but the forerunners, and foreshadows of the real Prophet of whom God spoke in this passage. Jesus Christ of Nazareth is that Prophet raised up by God. In Him dwells all the fullness of the Father, and all of the men in that long line of Old Testament ministers pointed to and led up to Him. They spoke as the word of God was given to them, but He is the Eternal Word who was and is and will always be, God. They foretold of One who would give His life for His people. He is the One who laid down His life for His sheep. They told of One who would conquer the grave. He is the One who rose again from the dead. He is the One who ascended into Heaven and “sitteth at the right hand of God the Father almighty.” He is the One who now intercedes for us before the Father. Yet, though He lived and died and lives again, and even now continues to minister unto us, still He calls mortal men to take up the mantle to be ministers in His Church. We, who are not worthy to be a slave to untie His sandals, to us He has given the task to become stewards of the mysteries of God. “Follow me, and I will make you to become fishers of men,” He said to the apostles. “Go ye therefore and teach all nations,” He said again, and this not to the apostles only, but to all ministers, even unto the end of the world,” (Mt. 28:19-20). “Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God,” wrote the man who would later give his very life in God’s service in 1 Corinthians 1:1. “And he gave some apostles; and some prophets; and some evangelists; and some pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,” says that same apostle in Ephesians 4:11-13. “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also,” he wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2, along with that well known exhortation, “Preach the word,” (2 Tim. 4:2). Yet again, many have taken up the sacred office on their own initiative. In the history of Virginia there was a time when the Church of England was the Established Church, and its ministers were supported by taxes and glebes. Not surprisingly, men were encouraged to “enter the church” because it offered financial security. Indeed, some of the glebes were so rich the clergy were more planters of tobacco seed than of Gospel seed. Even today the “ministry” offers rich financial rewards to those who are willing to “sell Jesus.” It is easy to draw large crowds through emotional manipulation. Provide the thrills and they will come, and they will give money. Make the gospel easy for them, and the rewards will be great. But that is not God’s way. The ministry is a calling. I am convinced that God has a calling for every person. It would be wrong for a minister to take up another calling. Of course, there are many who, like the Apostle Paul, are called to a “tent making” ministry in which they earn the bulk of their income by working at another job outside of the ministry. These men do great service to the Kingdom of Christ. God bless them. But that is their calling, and an honourable calling it is. But even this calling is not to be taken up by any means other than the call of God. Likewise it is not right for another to take up the ministry if that is not his life’s calling. It is only the call that leads a true minister into the ministry. How I wish it were not necessary to preach a sermon like this. But it is so evident that many who claim to speak for God today are not Christians, are not orthodox, and are not called. God grant that we may know those who are, and those who are not. Amen. The Rev. Dr. R. Dennis Campbell, Vicar, Holy Trinity Anglican Church,
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