Under No Illusion
What is the price of ministry and discipleship today?
Has the time of the fulfillment of Paul's prophecy arrived? When parishioners can't take it, and preachers won't give it! The plain, unvarnished and unequivocal Word of God, that is.
Paul was under no illusion about future attempts to undermine "sound doctrine" and piety, and we, preachers and parishioners alike, should be under no illusion about similar attempts today. He writes to a young preacher, and through him to the believers of that day, who will minister not only in a pagan culture but in a church struggling for its existence in a pagan culture. He knows the surrounding culture will influence the church, that its members will not have an easy time staying faithful and true. The temptation to turn away from "the truth" will be strong.
Doctrine is a concern of the church, not of the world. The world doesn't much care what the church believes, but the church must care. If the time has come when the church will not "put up with sound doctrine," that church includes liberals and conservatives alike. This word from Paul falls on us all, even on our denomination which has considered itself to be committed to uphold the "sound doctrine" of Scripture.
What is the preacher to do in such a time? With great patience he must correct, rebuke, encourage. He must keep his head (perhaps literally) in difficult situations, endure hardship, continue to evangelize, and faithfully discharge the duties to which God has called him.
If folks won't put up with it, he must do it anyway! His model for ministry is Jesus Christ, who was willing to be crucified for the sake of those He came to redeem.
Today our preachers are wrestling with the question of whether they should preach more on the gift and less on the claim of the gospel. More on Christ and His love and less on sin and its fruits. Maybe they have already decided what to do and the consequence is the erosion of traditional Adventist piety. But no matter how young or how old the preacher is, he needs to get busy and do what he has been appointed to do: on the basis of the Word of God expose sin, help his people to repent, and lift up Christ before their eyes as their only hope.
It's not easy to do this in a day like ours. But remember the story of the drummer boy in the Civil War. He was determined to do his duty and, beating his drum furiously, kept marching ahead on the battlefield with shot and shell falling all around. Scared to death he bent his head to watch his footing and forged ahead without looking back. He outmarched his unit and was way out in front all alone approaching the enemy line. An officer yelled to the commander, "The drummer is way ahead of us, shall we call him back?" "No!" shouted the commander, "make the men catch up with the drummer!" The preacher today needs to march ahead of the members, helping them to catch up with the Lord's will for their lives.
There is a price to pay to be a spiritual leader, whether you are a pastor or a laymember. Paul knew what it was. He had suffered the loss of all things in order to serve Christ. Although salvation is free, it cost the Lord everything. And if we are to be disciples of Christ it will cost everything we have and are, and we will be in for plenty of trouble. Once again Jesus is our model: "Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered" (Hebrews 5:8, NIV). Faithful preaching of the Word of God is our cross, and, to paraphrase Luther, it is far better to have this cross than to be without one, so we dare not refuse it. Every sermon is a battle for souls, part of the great controversy between God and the Devil. There is nothing more important to do than preach.
The Greatest Tragedy
"Preach the Word." The greatest tragedy that could befall any minister of the Word is to begin thinking that the steady week after week preaching of the Word of God to the people of God is not enough to satisfy him. That he must do some great thing, accomplish some great worldly goal, add to the list of material accomplishments of his predecessors. God have mercy on the pulpiteers of the Adventist Church if the preaching of the Word is not good enough for them, is not the greatest thing that could occupy their minds and their time. Because their greatest legacy will be souls in the kingdom, not buildings that are monuments to vainglory.
"Preach the Word." The greatest tragedy that could befall the Adventist Church today is for pastors to accommodate their preaching to what the itching ears of some in their congregations want to hear. When a pastor chooses to ease the troubled consciences of members by relaxing doctrinal and moral standards, or just not talking about them, he will only encourage the trend toward compromise in Adventist beliefs and piety. We see it in an increasing secularizing of the Sabbath, in sexual permissiveness, participation in worldly entertainments, chemical dependency, wearing of jewelry, blurring of role distinctions in the home and church, and decreasing dependence on the plain meaning of Scripture for defining Adventist beliefs and practices.
The Goal of Ministry
What is the goal of ministry? A paycheck? Approval? Social standing? Ecclesiastical promotion? Position and power? Popularity? No, none of these. Holiness is its goal! "Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness" (Hebrews 12:10, NIV).
People do not like to be called to holiness, to character development, to righteousness. They will not flock around the preacher who points to the narrow and strait path. The world will not honor the man who stands up for God, for His truth. It will take off his head if it can! Where was the crowd at the end of Jesus' ministry? Even His disciples forsook Him! Paul lost most of his friends when the crunch came: "At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me" (2 Timothy 4:16, NIV).
Ellen White's Anguish
Even Ellen G. White knew of that anguish during part of her ministry in Battle Creek. She says she was "disappointed and distressed," and "grieved in spirit beyond measure," her soul "filled with intense anguish." She felt injured and friendless, with little support from the Church and its leaders. However, in spite of the pain, her eyes were on the work to which she was called and the condition of the Church in which she labored. She says of that Church and of her anguish in ministry:
"I saw that God's people were in an alarming condition, and His favor was being removed from them. I pondered upon this sad picture day and night, and pleaded in bitter anguish: 'Oh Lord, give not Thine heritage to reproach. Let not the heathen say, Where is their God?' I felt that I was cut loose from everyone at the head of the work and was virtually standing alone. I dared not trust anyone."1
She then goes on to tell of three dreams concerning her and her husband which gave them courage to go on. One was given to a Brother Matteson and the other two to Brother Loughborough. In the first dream, there was a large pulpit surrounded by many lamps which, in the dream, were supplied with oil by Mrs. White and her husband. With renewed courage, though haltingly, the Whites took up their preaching ministry again. She reports, "We held profitable meetings at Battle Creek. Here my husband with freedom struck a bold blow at some sins of those who stand in high places in the cause, and for the first time in twenty months he attended evening meetings and preached evenings."2 The result was the support of the Whites' ministry by the Battle Creek congregation.
Loss of Confidence
The greatest temptation preachers ever face is loss of confidence in their call and in the Word of God. When that happens it will impact negatively on the spiritual life of the congregation. I recall a story told to us seminary students by Billy Graham in 1959, before I was an Adventist. He told how the Lord was blessing his ministry with converts, but also that he was urged to read and study the works of modern theologians like Brunner, Barth, Bultmann, Tillich, and the Niebuhrs, so that his preaching would be more contemporary and so he could deal with the real issues of the times. He should learn what they were saying about the Bible and its interpretation in the light of contemporary issues.
Graham had been preaching about sin and salvation, but he thought the counsel might be right, so he began to read. Almost imperceptibly the responses to his preaching and appeals became fewer and he began to despair. He was losing confidence in the Bible as the Word of God!
He related going into the redwood forest of California one day and coming upon the immense stump of a redwood tree. Kneeling there he laid his Bible on the stump and reaffirmed faith in that Book. "I don't understand everything in this book," he told the Lord, "but here and now I accept everything in this Book without question as your holy and inspired Word to mankind."
Imagine how that sounded to a group of students in one of the most liberal seminaries in the country! It sounded real good to me! It still does. It was food for the hungry, drink for the thirsty! Billy Graham said that he went back to his crusades with renewed zeal and confidence preaching "the Bible says." You know the rest of the story and the fruit of his evangelistic ministry.
Luther once said that in the Middle Ages Satan had his agents in the schools of the Church and through them caused the Scriptures to become "like a broken net and no one would be restrained by it, but everyone made a hole in it wherever it pleased him to poke his snout, and followed his own opinions, interpreting and twisting Scripture any way he pleased."3
No Illusion
Let us be under no illusion. The Adventist church today will keep its identity and fulfill its mission only as its pastors and parishioners stand committed to uphold in their thinking and their living the "sound doctrine" of the Word of God. This was true for the church in Paul's day, in Luther's day, and it is true for our church today.
"Preach the word" says Paul, and Jesus promises His preachers "I will be with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:20, NIV). So beside the price of ministry there is the promise for ministry!
Sometimes we will be startled by the freshness of the simple, uncomplicated faith of our people in the Word of God. A young pastor just out of seminary was trying, by his knowledge of Greek, to convince an elderly lady of God's providential care. He quoted the Lord: "I will never leave you, nor forsake you," and said that in Greek it meant never, never, never. She said, "Well, you Greek scholars may have to hear it three times before you believe it, but once is enough for me."
There will be a crown waiting in glory for those who faithfully preach God's Word. Don't let anything take it away from you. Discouragement could do it. Success could do it. Appetite could do it. Popularity and power could do it. Fear of man could do it. Reading the wrong kinds of books could do it. Thinking the wrong thoughts could do it.
Piddling away the ministry in non-essentials could do it. We certainly don't believe in works righteousness, but we must not forget that rewards will be given out in glory. Don't miss out on yours. Don't let the Devil cheat you out of what the Lord stands ready to give you on that day. Yes, you will cast your crown before Him in thanksgiving and praise, but He will give it to you first and it will be yours to offer Him. Preach the Word!