Romans 10:14-15 [5th Sunday after the Epiphany]
Pastor Ron Koehler
Grace—Benson/Vail, AZ
February 10, 2019
In the name of our Savior Jesus, dear friends,
I’d like to read something for you this morning. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it or not, but it’s called “The Perfect Pastor.” The ideal pastor preaches exactly 10 minutes. He condemns sin, but never hurts anyone’s feelings. He works from 8:00 a.m. to midnight and also serves as the church janitor. He makes $40 a week, wears good clothes and donates $30 a week to church. He is 29 years old and has 40 years of experience. He makes 15 house calls a day and is always in his office. If your pastor does not measure up to these criteria, send this list of pastors to six other churches that are also dissatisfied with their pastor. Then, bundle up your pastor and send him to the church at the top of the list. In one week you will receive 1,643 pastors. Surely one of them will be perfect. Have faith in this letter. One church broke the chain and got its old pastor back in three months.
Certainly no one thinks that is how pastors move from church to church! But I do know that there are many questions every time a church extends a Call or a pastor receives a Call. We are no exception, even though we have been through the calling process around here more than a handful of times! When holding a Call, I’ve been asked, “How does this work exactly?” “Do you have to go?” “How long do you have to decide?” “How do you decide?” and more. There are more and different questions when we, as a congregation, are extending the Call. What fortunate timing it is for us that Romans 10 is an appointed lesson for this Sunday, as we have recently had the Call we extended returned! Let’s look specifically at verses 14 and 15 today and consider GOD’S CALL TO PASTORS and see that they are 1.
CALLED TO A SPECIFIC MESSAGE
(v. 14) and they are
2. CALLED TO A SPECIFIC PLACE (v. 15)
The Apostle Paul writes about the preaching of God’s Word by using a series of questions. He says, So then, how can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one about whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without a preacher? When he says “the one”, he means Jesus. His point is that people cannot know about Jesus unless someone tells them. In fact, we are all testimony to that truth. None of us knew all about Jesus as our Savior, without someone telling us, teaching us, or steering us to the Scriptures. Many of us hold a special place in our hearts for the person who did that. Perhaps it was your mother, your father, a good friend, a roommate, a pastor. The truth that Paul teaches is that we could not “call on”, “believe in”, or “hear” if there was no one to bring us that message of salvation from God. In this letter to the Romans, Paul writes quite a lot about the Jews not confessing their sins to God, but instead trying to live a perfect life and earn God’s love. Paul emphatically states that that cannot be done. No one is perfect because sin is part of everyone’s nature—and everyone actively goes against God’s will. That sin is damning; it causes separation from God—a separation that will last through eternity. To a just and holy God, that is totally fair and justified. I think that even we can understand how that must be from the point of view of a perfect God.
But the warning against sin was not Paul’s entire message. He desperately wanted all of his people, the Jews—along with all others—to believe in Jesus as their Savior from sin. He wanted them to know that Jesus did what we couldn’t do—please God with his entire life. He wanted them to know that Jesus’ death really was a sacrifice that paid the price for the world’s sin. He wanted them to know that when Jesus rose from death, he conquered it, announcing his victory over sin, death, and the devil and promising that he was making us part of that victory by faith in him. The message was a specific one, yet a simple one. The law of God points out the sin in our lives and reveals to us that we have not lived up to the standard God has set for all people. The result for sinners is death in hell—eternal separation from God. The gospel of God, the good news, is that Jesus lived, died, and rose to pay for sin and win forgiveness and eternal life. Those blessings are there for everyone, and God calls all people to believe that. A specific message, yet a simple one. What gave Paul the right to preach that? You may remember that Paul previously went by the name of Saul. God changed him as a person and he changed his name too. God dramatically converted a former persecutor of Christians and the Church into the great missionary and preacher. God called Paul to preach. He was a pastor, a missionary, a church planter, a church administrator. He was called by God to serve with that specific message. God’s CALL TO PASTORS is the same today. Oh, it may not be dramatic like Paul’s call. And we may not be chosen by casting lots like disciple #13—Matthias, who replaced Judas. But pastors are CALLED TO A SPECIFIC MESSAGE nonetheless. All Christians are called to serve and to use God’s Word, but some are called specifically to preach. Ephesians 4:11 reminds us It was (Jesus) who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors who teach. Paul wrote to Timothy, his young coworker, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom: Preach the word. Be ready whether it is convenient or not. Correct, rebuke, and encourage, with all patience and teaching (4:1-2, EHV). Paul knew what it was to be called by God to preach. Another time he wrote: You see, if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast about, because an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! (1 Corinthians 9:16)! As God gives detailed qualifications for an overseer, or pastor, in Scripture, he makes it clear that he does not call everyone to be a preacher of the gospel. But he does call some—and he CALLS THEM TO A SPECIFIC MESSAGE. Above all, a pastor is to do this one thing: to hold to that SPECIFIC MESSAGE of law and gospel, revealing sin and showing the need for a Savior, and announcing forgiveness of sin through faith in what Jesus has done.
In addition to a SPECIFIC MESSAGE, GOD CALLS PASTORS TO A SPECIFIC PLACE. A pastor can’t preach if he has no place to do that and no one to hear him, right? Paul says, And how can they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news of peace, who preach the gospel of good things!” Pastors today are sent by God and through groups of Christians. In our church body, we train men for the ministry at our college and then at our seminary—8 years of theological training. Then, with prayer and consideration of their God-given gifts—and by the direction of the Holy Spirit—we send them out to SPECIFIC PLACES with that SPECIFIC MESSAGE of salvation. Pastors have a willingness to be directed by God. The words of Isaiah ring in their hearts and ears as they say with eager and willing voices, Here am I. Send me (Isaiah 6:8)! You probably remember people like Moses, who, although reluctant and filled with excuses, was sent by God to be his spokesman in a SPECIFIC PLACE—to Pharaoh and Egypt. Or Jonah, the reluctant prophet, whom God also sent to be his mouthpiece in a SPECIFIC PLACE—the wicked city of Nineveh. Or maybe you think of the Lord’s dramatic turnaround of the apostle Paul. Today GOD CALLS PASTORS TO A SPECIFIC PLACE through groups of Christians, although not by divine revelation in the way he called Paul or Moses or Jonah. We take confidence in Jesus’ promise in Matthew 18:20, …where two or three have gathered in my name, there I am among them. So, when Christians gather to call a pastor to a SPECIFIC PLACE, they are confident that the Lord is there guiding that decision. Paul spoke of the Lord’s activity of assigning pastors their work when he told the Corinthians: What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are ministers through whom you believed, and each served as the Lord gave him his role (1 Cor. 3:5). The same Lord assigns those roles today. Pastors love to hear the words of Paul that he spoke to leaders in the church at Ephesus, understanding that the Spirit gives us a place to serve also: Always keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock in which the Holy Spirit has placed you as overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. (Acts 20:28). God teaches us with these words and others that he CALLS PASTORS TO SPECIFIC PLACES. Groups of Christians gather to prayerfully consider their needs in a pastor and seek a person whom they feel can do the work of the ministry there. God works through this calling process for the good of his kingdom as well as for the good of the individuals involved in the Call. The pastor spends time in reflection on the ministry, seeks the counsel of those around him, and prays that the Holy Spirit would guide his decision-making. On the human side of things, we know that the pastor is given the freedom to choose where he feels he ought to serve at that time—the place he is at or the other place he is called to because there is no divine revelation to the pastor which tells him what he must do. On the God side of things, we know that the Lord of the Church will have the man he desires serve at a specific place.
I’ve given you many Bible passages regarding GOD’S CALL TO PASTORS, but I know that people usually want to know some practical things as well. No, there is no time limit in which a pastor must decide to accept or return a Call. God doesn’t say anything about that. In Christian love, a pastor gives an appropriate amount of time to think and pray about a decision, giving consideration to his current congregation and the one which is calling. No, a pastor does not have to take every Call he receives, thinking that God wouldn’t send a Call if he didn’t want it accepted. At the time a pastor is called, both congregations must reflect on their ministry and how the pastor’s gifts are being used or would be used. Certainly you know that in the case of a vacancy, the people of a congregation must step up and use their gifts to serve, sometimes in ways that are new to them. A vacancy is valuable training time and gives opportunity to think about and appreciate the ministry and the work of pastors. God uses this time for the good of individual Christians and the church as a whole. It is also important to realize that a Call is not a contract or simply a job offer. It is very different because we know that God works through the Call. If it were simply a job offer, the decision might be easier based on answers to a few key questions: “Do I like the work? Do I like the location and the weather? Do I like the pay? Is this a “step up” for me? Does this new position advance my career?” But that’s not it at all! What a pastor considers is this: “Where do I believe God will use me best to share that SPECIFIC MESSAGE of forgiveness of sins and salvation in Jesus Christ?” That’s the question. That question leads pastors to sometimes live where they wouldn’t necessarily choose, to take less pay than they are currently receiving, to take on tough jobs. “Where do I believe God will use me best to share that specific message of forgiveness of sins and salvation in Jesus Christ?” Paul writes here, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news of peace, who preach the gospel of good things!” We rejoice when we have a pastor who will simply preach the law and gospel! That’s the important thing. Although pastors are weak sinners like everyone else and the Call process uses sinful human beings as its agents, we have the assurance that God works through it all and CALLS PASTORS TO A SPECIFIC MESSAGE and TO SPECIFIC PLACES. Although I consider our congregation pretty healthy when it comes to an understanding and respect for the ministry and God’s Call, we are not perfect. Today is a day we can repent for any lack of appreciation we have had for pastors or the ministry in general and any skepticism when it comes to God’s Call. As a pastor I can repent of the same. We can ask forgiveness for weakly supporting the ministry in our prayer lives, our offerings, and our service. And we can all know that Christ paid for these sins of ours. We are forgiven. Thank God today for his divine guidance and for providing pastors for his people. Ask him to keep us all faithful to that gospel message of forgiveness and salvation so that his kingdom may be built up and that heaven may one day ring with the voices of all who have heard that beautiful message of salvation! Amen. Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.