THREE EXHORTATIONS FOR CHURCH PASTORS

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.

1 Timothy 4:12-14

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Timothy was a young pastor when he started leading the Ephesian church. Despite the scriptures not offering a date of his birth, theologians estimate he was in his thirties and although this was his first significant ministry tasking, Paul knew he was up to the task as he wrote two letters to the man who he had mentored for so many years.

As we look at today’s passage, we find Paul reminding Timothy that his lack of pastoral experience need not be a barrier to the work he needed to do. Look again at his words here:

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.  1 Timothy 4:12-14

Note here that there were three specific exhortations sent to Timothy by Paul, exhortations intended to lead the young minister to success.

First, Timothy needed to lead by example.

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.

Timothy would have been under a lot of scrutiny among the Ephesian Christians just as much as any pastor today is under the constant examination of their congregants. With this, it was important for him to ensure his conduct reflected the expectations of his elevated responsibility to shepherd a body of Christ. Every word and deed would be important to validate his positional authority and ministerial calling, and so everything he did needed to be grounded in love, faith, and purity.

The second thing Paul challenged Timothy to do was to put the word of God first.

Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.

Pastoring isn’t about glorifying oneself. Rather, the pastor is to ensure the Lord is always center stage, glorifying and honoring Him with every action taken while ensuring his congregation is growing in their knowledge of and faith in their God and His Son, Jesus.

The best way a pastor can go about this, making God and Jesus central to the church in all things, is to preach and teach the scriptures publicly for it’s within God’s holy Word that He reveals Himself to us and unfolds His salvation plan for mankind (aka the Gospel).

When a pastor puts the scriptures first, serving as God’s appointed and anointed messenger, then he will always be in the place the Lord wants him to be while sharing what the Lord wants him to share with believers.

The final exhortation we find from Paul regards using the special gifts the Lord provides.

Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you. 

As we covered early on in this series from 1 Timothy, the young pastor had been commissioned for ministry long before he ended up leading the Ephesian church. To review, here’s what we read in the Book of Acts:

Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was Jewish and a believer but whose father was a Greek. The believers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him.

Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers. Acts 16:1-5

Unlike Jesus selecting people who had no ministry experience to follow Him and become fishers of men (Matthew 4:19), Timothy obviously had been involved in Christian service when Paul first encountered him. Despite being in his late teens or early twenties, Timothy had received endorsement from “the believers at Lystra and Iconium” who “spoke well of him”. We know Timothy lived in Lystra and so the believers there giving approval isn’t too surprising but Iconium was approximately 60 miles from Lystra which would have meant Timothy had traveled there and was engaged in Christian service enough to gain the recommendation of his brothers and sisters in Christ there.

In ordaining someone into ministry, it was common practice for the elders in the church to lay hands on the person and pray over them, a practice still carried out in Christian congregations today. This ordination served to designate the believer for higher levels of ministry responsibility and for Timothy, this began as a missionary before elevating to pastorship in Ephesus.

This increase of responsibility was a gift from God to Timothy, a divine appointment with much at stake, just as it has been for pastors through the ages. Paul commanded Timothy to not neglect the special opportunity, the gift the Lord had given him for to do so would be nothing short of sinful with great harm brought to the cause of the Gospel which he had been tasked to preach and teach.

Set the example as a Christian leader.

Preach and teach the scriptures publicly.

Don’t neglect the special gift of ministry responsibility God has provided.

These were the three specific points of emphasis Paul sends to Timothy, points intended to make sure he succeeded in his pastoral mission. All Christian ministers would be well served to follow these as well while carrying out their own gifts of church leadership today.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.