What is a Biblical Pastor?

Open your Bibles, if you would, to Second Timothy chapter four. If you need a Bible, there's one under a seat nearby. And if you don't have a Bible, you're welcome to take that one with you.

It's a privilege to preach the Word of God to you and to talk about our Lord Jesus Christ. Last week, I discussed what a healthy church is. And that was you guys. You're the body of Christ and you use your gifts. When each part is equipped and working properly, we exalt the Lord Christ, and his church is built up in love. This week, we’re going to talk about: What is a Biblical Pastor? What is a Biblical Pastor? And don't worry, there are some things in there for you as well.

So, as we're in the process of seeking the next Senior Pastor of Grace Bible Church, what should be in his job description? I had a fun time reading over some job descriptions this week. Let me just quote some of these to you. And you can see the state of the church in our country, the first one, “He must be able to read and write and must speak English.” Must be able to read and write, I kid you not, that is on a job description. Set the bar high. “Must be able to organize charitable activities and church events and meet with members to help strengthen them in their faith or overcome significant life changes.” Is your faith not connected to the significant things you're going through? Another one, “Looking after the people he or she has responsibility for.” Now, this is the senior pastor, so hopefully you've got flags going off, “especially by helping them with their personal problems.” Right? You're my life coach. You ever seen that out there? You're my guide. You're the guy I call when my life falls apart. Like, you should be looking to Jesus, not some guy who stands up and preaches. Right? We need to point people to Christ. And the last one, which sounds pretty good, “must be able to feed and lead the congregation and the community.” I thought that the church was made up of believers. The community is who we reach out to with evangelism. We don't feed them with anything but the gospel.

So, in each one of these things, if the churches actually get what they're asking for, they won't have a church leader. They're just going to have a ringleader. Someone who is guiding them and directing them in whatever ways they feel good about, at the time. So, what's missing in these types of qualifications? These were real qualifications for senior pastors in what you would call “evangelical churches” in our country. I stayed away from all of the ones who were obviously off the wagon. What's missing? And I would say, pretty much everything. Anything godly. No Scripture was quoted there. I mean, do we know what a biblical pastor is? Should we be able to write our own job description for a biblical pastor? You should want someone who is a shepherd, who is qualified according to God's Word, and that is the first thing that you should consider. A biblical pastor must be qualified according to Scripture.

And in this sermon, today, I'm going to do some teaching, which is just delivering some information. And then I'm going to get to a little preaching in the second half, to kind of demonstrate what we're talking about. But the first qualification is that he must be qualified according to Scripture, at a minimum. 1 Timothy 3:1-7, Titus 1:5-9, even 1 Peter 5:1-4. These are all the basic qualifications for a pastor. And as you guys, and the elders, and myself – as we consider what a biblical candidate is this is home base for us. This is the “do not pass go.” If you don't meet these qualifications, there's not even a question, there's no phone call, there's no need to even talk to anybody if you don't meet these, and these are weighty. I've preached a series on this before, the biblical qualifications for elders over and over again. You can listen to those sermons, it’s a series. But I just want to quote a couple verses out of these sections to kind of get our minds in the right place.

A biblical pastor must give sound doctrine and rebuke those who contradict. Titus 1:9, says this, “He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.” Now, we just lost half the churches in America with the second part, the “rebuke those who contradict it.” Right? It's like, positive parenting. I remember being in San Clemente, California and trying to get to know some of our neighbors. And I was on this kick trying to invite people to our church and I met this family, and I was like, “Oh, where do you guys go to church?” And they were like, “We can't find a good church.” And I was like, “Oh, well I go to a good church. Let me tell you about it.” And then the question the mom wanted to know was this. She just had one question, “Will they tell my child, they're sinning? If so, we don't want to go to a church like that.” I was like, “Well, you might not want to come to this one then because you're going to hear about sin.” I mean, if you don't need to hear about sin, you really don't need to hear about a savior. Right? And Jesus is pretty important. So, a lot of churches, you'll hear some of the megachurch pastors, and small church pastors say, “You know, I just got to stay in my lane.” And I won't lapse into mimicking any of them. But they just talk about love, as though love does not have justice in view.

So, “He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught.” Not just, as imagined, but as taught, “so that he may…give instruction in sound doctrine.” In other words, if you don't hold to the “word as taught,” you're not holding to sound doctrine. Maybe holding to some kind of doctrine. Doctrine simply means teaching. But it's not sound.

Another one in First Peter five – this was preached at my ordination service – says this, 1 Peter 5:1-4, “So I exhort the elders among you,” notice, this is all of them, not just the senior pastor, “as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.”

He must unequivocally be a shepherd. He must give oversight. He must be an example. He must not do so for shameful gain, but he does do so to earn a living. That's the next thing you must know is that a biblical pastor makes his living by preaching the gospel. You say, “Where is that in Scripture?” I'm glad you asked. It is in 1 Corinthians 9:14, “In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.” Okay, not making them poor. I have some buddies who are at churches like that. Jesus had nowhere to lay his head and you won’t either, right? That kind of thing. You guys are not like that. You're very generous and very loving. But this is more than knowing where your income comes from. It's knowing whom you must trust to have an income. So, you see it's not totally different than you. You have a job that gives you income, but your trust is in the Lord. Right? Same way with a pastor, he gets paid for what he does. But his trust is in God, who made heaven and earth. A church must be faithful in this regard. As the pastor demonstrates his faithful trust in God, to provide for his own family, he becomes an example to the flock. So, you can't just set aside the example when you're talking about how you compensate or take care of the pastor and his family. As the flock trusts God to provide for them, they will be generous to provide for the pastor and his family. And as I said last week, there are some of these verses that are a lot easier to preach to you now because it's about the next guy, right? But you want to honor the Lord, today. So, you want to faithfully take care of him, and a biblical pastor makes his living by preaching the gospel.

And let me just rifle off a few other things that a biblical pastor also does. He shepherds, the people, he prays for the people. He visits the sick. He preaches the Word, all of it. He doesn't skip the difficult parts. He communicates the purpose and vision of the church – not that they came up with in a committee meeting – but that they see in Scripture. He oversees the church. He equips the saints. He equips the teachers. He makes disciples, He helps with the budget. He oversees the missionaries, administers baptisms and communions, he guards the purity of the church. He warns against false teachers. He manages staff. That's the basics.

Some pastors, additionally – because I get this question, like, “What do you do all week? I've literally had that question asked to me many, many, many times. It's okay. I love golfing and telling you about golf. Just kidding. But there are lots of things pastors do. And at small churches and other churches, some pastors additionally: do the majority of the counseling, get the mail, run the office, make the bulletins, update the website, negotiate the building lease, generate and oversee graphic design, oversee curriculum, lead small groups, lead Bible studies, lead Sunday school classes. Train and raise up elders, deacons, Bible study teachers and leaders, small group leaders – and this is to say nothing of those who plant or revitalized churches. And if they don't manage their own households well, while they're doing all this, they're out of a job. Shall I read it again? This is what pastors do. All the time. That's why we hired Mr. Feldi. God bless his soul. That's pretty good. There's like two pages of that, of all the things he does. So that I can focus on the main things, right? That I'm called to do.

In all this, a biblical pastor must know his primary tasks. He must know his primary tasks. If he doesn't know his primary tasks, then he's going to get sidetracked by the tasks that are just set in front of him. Right? It's the running around with a fire extinguisher method. Maybe you work with people like that, they're always busy but never accomplishing anything. A biblical pastor must know his primary task. And we're going to see that from Second Timothy chapter four. If you would, please turn there with me.

This is Paul's last letter. He is giving his beloved Timothy, directions on how to be a pastor. If you've ever considered being a pastor, you need to pour yourself over First and Second Timothy and Titus. Just over and over and over and over again.

And so in 2 Timothy 4:1-5
1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, [he said that 2000 years ago, by the way] but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

This is the calling card of a pastor, this passage. This is what he is to do.

While it's expounded in, you know, Ephesians 4:11-16, which I went over last week, he's to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ, so that when each part is working properly, it builds itself up in love, he is to do those things. But this is the total, this is the mountaintop of what he is to give himself to. So, a biblical preacher knows his primary task. First, he is a preacher. He is a preacher, he is primarily an expository of God's Word. He doesn't come up with fancy talks, that could get him lots of clicks. He delivers what the Master Chef has already prepared. He preaches the Word, all of it. Start to finish, Genesis to Revelation, the whole sum total counsel of God.

This is why a lot of churches had multiple services. As you take these things seriously, you can't get it all done in one hour a week. So, then you have to have a second service, or maybe a third service. Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. And it starts to impinge on the schedules. And then you need some Bible studies and small groups. And then you need some discipleship. And you can just see how the more serious you take this, the more engaged you have to be. So he is an expositor of God's Word, a diligent student, he must be a scholar. If you have to put “must be able to read and write” in the job description. I mean, I would frankly love to hear a sermon at that church. But, I mean, we've got to raise the bar a little bit. The scholars used to be the pastors, all of them, not just some of them.

To be submissive to the authorial intent of Scripture, submissive to it. He in his mind, in his life, in his character, in what he thinks and how he teaches, and what's primary about what he says, must be submissive to the Word of God and everything that it says. He must be led by the Holy Spirit, he must be submissive to the authority of God's Word. Authority is a bad word in our day and age. But he must be submissive to the full authority and the counsel of God's Word. He must be an elder who is ready in season and out of season to preach and declare the Word of God. He proclaims the gospel and the supremacy of Jesus Christ, so that sinners will repent and believe in the gospel – which is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe. It's just a summary. He helps people behold the glory of God. That is a high calling. Isaiah 57:15, says, “For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.’” Those are the very words of God the Father in Isaiah. He's telling us who he is. And a preacher must expound who God is so that we can all know him and worship him and enjoy him forever.

He knows that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. I remember being given a task in seminary to find the theme verse of Romans, and I thought I was the only one in class who would pick out verse 16 of chapter one. And then I found out everybody picked out that verse. Romans 1:16-17, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” He knows the power is not in himself, or how loud he is, or how soft he is, or how much he makes you cry, or when he makes you laugh, or if he uses PowerPoint or not. Or if he shows you funny pictures from the week to, I guess, get you engaged with a holy God. All of those things. I like Steve Lawson, what he says about this. And if you know Steve Lawson, he's very direct and to the point, he says, “If you can't preach, use PowerPoint.” None of us pursued using PowerPoint after that. “We can preach.” But he knows the power of God is in the Gospel. Whether you put it up on a verse or not is not the point. It's where does the power reside? What do the people beg for when a pastor gets up to preach? Do they beg for the Word, or do they beg to be entertained?

Some of the greatest church fathers in history were transformed simply by reading the Word of God. You might not have even ever heard of this first one. Sure, some of you have, John Chrysostom. He was called “Golden Mouth” because of his eloquence, and his direct nature, and his command of Scripture. He died at age 58. He lived from 347 to 409 AD. He had the book of Romans read out loud to himself twice a week. Twice a week! The book of Romans. He loved the sacred truth.

Augustine, died at age 75. Live from 354 to 430 AD. Lived a life of perversion and immorality, he would have fit right in. His mother followed him and moved in next to him when he moved. Haha, you thought you were the only ones that that happened to. He moved from Rome to Milan. He starts reading Romans 13. And God is wrestling with him through the power of the spoken Word of God, as he reads what is written, and it says make no provision in the flesh in regards to its lust. And he says this, “At once, a light of relief from all anxiety fled into my heart and all doubt left me.” I don't know if anyone's written more in church history than that man.

Martin Luther, the Augustinian monk, was completely lost. He was an unsaved monk. He almost killed himself through starvation trying to get God's attention. You ever try and get like, “Hey God, here I am.” As though God forgot something. He wouldn't be God if he had forgotten anything. And he's trying to get God's attention. He reads Romans 1:17, that I just read to you, the just shall live by faith. It crushed him. He says this, “Though I lived as a monk without reproach. I did not believe God was satisfied with me.” And then you read, “the just shall live by faith.” It's not about your life, or your works, or the good things you think you can generate. It's about faith and belief in Christ alone for salvation. And that transformed him. Just as a sidenote, both Martin Luther and William Tyndale (William Tyndale translated the Bible into English), both memorized most of the Bible. A biblical preacher knows the power is in the Word.

You’re like, “Dave, you had us the first time you said that.” So, as you think about the next preacher, is it ruminating in your mind that you just want the Word? Or is there a litany of things that you want? Is the Word most prominent in your idea? Can you just preach the Word? Can you just shepherd us with the powerful, life transforming word of the gospel? Can you just communicate the sum-total of God's redemptive narrative of history from Genesis to Revelation? Is that what's in your mind? If not, then we need to hear this. A Biblical pastor knows the power does not lie in the beautiful music that just moves you. The reason why music is so prominent in our day is because real preaching is not. It doesn't lie in the beautiful children's ministry, though we scrutinize everything the teachers say. It doesn't lie in a short sermon that no one ever complained about a short sermon. We all know that. Or the fellowship, “I just need to connect.” Yeah, with Jesus. And then when you're connected with Jesus, then the fellowship is sweet. It's when we replace the primacy of our connection with Jesus that we somehow then love and savor the fellowship with believers, because our relationship with God is not where it should be. And maybe we can make it. Maybe we can find joy and happiness from relationships with others.

And we are quick to jettison these truths at times. But this is what is wonderful about preaching from this pulpit. Those of you whom I know, you want the Word. Praise God for that! He does not just preach the God of love, but also the God of justice, knowing those two things are not antithetical to each other. He preaches grace and he preaches wrath. He preaches the God of Heaven and Hell, who alone will judge the living and the dead. And we should not fear God as though we would endure his retribution. We fear God knowing we are not worthy. But we know he is holy and righteous and gracious and merciful and lavishes his grace upon us so that when we see him, we see ourselves rightly. But yet we are still drawn to him. The biblical preacher unleashes all of this because God is good. So, he is indeed a preacher.

He is also a shepherd. He loves and serves the people. Guides them with God's Word. Corrects them when they are in danger or sin. Prays for them, teaches them. Sets an example of diligence, study, pursuit of holiness, and worship. In all these things he makes disciples of God's people. For those who want discipleship, you will not be disappointed here. We have men who are willing to disciple you, we have women who are willing to disciple the women. And in all of these things, you can grow as much as you want to grow. It's up to you. The leadership is willing, the men who can disciple are willing. And I just beg you, I encourage you, to take advantage of that. The biblical pastor also shepherds his own family and knows that he must shepherd their hearts as well. He cannot always be about shepherding other families to the neglect of his own. Though the sacrifice is great. He realizes he is primarily an under-shepherd, to the Shepherd of the church, to the Head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And he encourages people with the Word. 1 Corinthians 15:58. “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” There is no such thing as no one sees what I'm doing because God sees. And if God is primary, then your joy is complete. No one cares about me. That's an impossibility in the Lord's church. Because God cares about you. Your leaders care about you. Many of the lay people care about you, as you are to care for and prefer them. So, he is a shepherd.

He is also a protector. He understands that the purity of the church is primary. You can be doing all of these things well, everybody can be growing. But a little leaven leavens the whole lump, right? We don't eat apples with worms in them, even though the worms are only in part of the apple. Right? We don't do that. We don't throw a little bit of dirt in our meal, and the rest of the meal is good. We want the whole thing pure. And the Lord calls the church to holiness. Ephesians 5:26, she is washed with the water of the Word, which is then an example for husbands of how to care for their wives. To be presented holy and without spot or blemish, not a single spot [Ephesians 5:27]. That's the level that God demands of his church. And all these things drive us to our knees and we say, “Lord, I'm not worthy of these things.” But a biblical pastor knows he must be the protector of the church along with the elders. He promotes a biblical philosophy of ministry in everything. And if you don't know what that phrase means, ask Adam or Dustin. It's a biblical philosophy of ministry and thinking in every single area of the church. He baptizes believers and helps celebrate communion together in remembrance of what God has done.

I remember one time, it's my favorite story, I love to tell it – I'll probably tell it a couple times over the next few months – and it's an example of protecting. So, I was going to preach at a local church and I was in seminary. And the church was out of the way, it was in the mountains, just north of Burbank, CA and the fir trees all have this aromatic smell to them. The air is crystal clear. There's this church who needs somebody to preach because their pastor wasn't there anymore. And there's, you know, like maybe 20 people. And before the service, I'm talking to somebody and this guy comes up and he starts talking to me about how Jesus was a created being. And I said, “Well, what do you mean by that?” This is an Arian heresy. Okay? And so, he goes on and on, and I'm looking around, like, he's not being quiet about this. Like, does he even care that he's actually trying to teach and promote heresy? And my sweet wife was standing next to me and she could kind of see the proverbial hair on my neck starting to stand up. Like, this is what we do we’re protectors. It’s like throwing a big piece of raw meat in front of a starving lion. They're going to pounce. Right? And I'm looking around and I'm thinking, no wonder this church is about dead. It's on life support. They put up with, they called him, “the local heretic.” The people in the congregation actually knew this. By the way, if Jesus isn't eternal, he's not God. Right? So, they put up with this. And one little old lady came up, she had a real pretty had on, she said, “He's a heretic.” I said, “Why is he here?” The pastor is a protector. You don't get to pick and choose. The guy knew what he was doing. He was purposefully trying to change this little congregation into his image. And he was pretty successful at it.

1 Timothy 6:20 says, “O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you.” If you're an elder, this applies directly to you. The Word of God is the deposit that is entrusted to you as a protector of God's Word. 2 Timothy 1:14, “By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.” And as you, as the congregation, think about what a biblical pastor is, he must be a protector. He must be a protector. Besides Matthew 18, which we practice here, public church discipline. There is also Titus 3:10-11, which this is the fast track to church discipline, “As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him.” Two warnings and you’re out. “Knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.” You need a pastor with biblical conviction, who is willing to stand on God's Word, who is supported by men who are elders, who have convictions and are willing to stand on God's Word. And then you don't have to worry about the church being tossed all over the place by the news or the culture, or the latest preaching fad, or the latest thing for churches to do. You know, they're going to be unequivocal in their stance to preach and teach and protect God's Word.

So, the biblical pastor is a leader of God's church, under the authority of Scripture, under the authority of Jesus Christ, through the direction of the Holy Spirit, according to God's Word. So, as you think again about the next pastor, and what he's doing. Notice that the Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd, is over the local pastor, the local pastor is over the church, and he is one among equals, amongst the elders. You can ask your elders about that concept as well. But his job is to communicate and deliver the life transforming power of the Word of God. Lovingly, with a shepherd's heart. So how does he relate to other people in the church? What is this relationship supposed to look like?

Well, first, how is he to relate to other elders? Well, the senior pastor is the first among equals. Let that concept sink in a little bit. This means he is the primary leader in a group of leaders, who all have the same authority he does, but not the same responsibility he does. The senior pastor is full time and Scripture says he is to receive double honor. That is not just pay, that is double the pay, according to the Word of God, because the pastor has given himself fully to the work of the ministry. While a lot of times lay elders have a full-time job. So, while Dustin and Adam are putting in 50/60 hours at work, plus a commute, plus taking care of their family. I'm spending all that time here preaching, teaching, studying. So, the senior pastor leads the elders, simply because he has more time to dedicate to thinking those things through and to study. He leads by example and trains them and gets sharpened by them as well.

I love the camaraderie that we have as elders. We have a wonderful time together. We laugh. We laugh so hard we cry sometimes. We have a good time praying for you all in our elder meetings. We meet twice a month, sometimes more, but most of the time, just twice a month for about three hours. And we spend the first hour just praying for you guys. Talking about how's this family doing? How's that family doing? Well, this family is, you know, removing themselves from things. So, do we need to communicate to them? Well, this family is getting more engaged, how do we support them? This family, maybe this guy would be a good teacher and this lady would be good in the children's ministry? And we just pray over these things constantly. But we have a good time as elders.

So, what's the relationship of a pastor to the deacons? Well, the deacons are there to help alleviate the work of the ministry, from the elders. It's not just that they have people over, they have people over who need to be ministered to, so that the elders can focus on prayer and the ministry of the Word, according to Acts. Right? So, their job is to do things that would free up the elders from doing those very same things. So, the word “deacon” or “diakonos” means “serve.” It is a willing servant. And so, one thing to remember is that there's not a lot of descriptions or qualifications of deacons in Scripture. If you had to guess how many verses (there's over 5000 words in the New Testament), there's only about six verses in the entire Bible that describe what deacons do. That's it. That's it. But some churches, especially when you go into the Bible Belt, man, you would think the whole Bible was written about deacons, they do everything. They practically run the church. But a biblical pastor knows the deacons are servants. We would call Acts chapter six, kind of a prototype passage that describes what deacons do. So, they are servants, servants. And they help alleviate the work of the ministry from the elders.

What about the members? What's the relationship of a biblical pastor, to the members? Well, we have membership, because I'm going to give an account for those who are under my care, and we need to know who those are. So, is that everyone, every single week? Well, to the best of my ability. But the primary time, thinking, prayer, discipleship, discussion, interaction goes to those who are members. They're committed to this local body under these shepherds. And so, there are times when you're getting to know a church and you take a while and you see do I want to do that? There are sometimes, very extenuating circumstances, where someone wouldn't want to be a member, but they're incredibly committed, and they serve and those sorts of things. I'm just talking about in general, as you come to a church, you want to be committed to the church, and you want the church fully committed to you. And so, we sharpen each other, we have fellowship. So, his relationship is primarily to the members of the church, and to the best of his ability, to everyone who is there each week.

He has a special relationship with his wife, with his children. A biblical pastor knows this. A biblical pastor must be willing to pour into his own family, and his own relationship with his spouse. He must not simply be a workaholic. If he's here 60 hours a week or 70 hours a week, you should ask the guy, “When are you spending time pouring into your family?” You know, if it seems like he's doing too much, you need to ask him, “Hey, we want you to pour into your family, is there something we can do to help you with that?” And he would, of course, oblige with 20 or 30 things you could do to help with that. But a biblical pastor knows these are the basics, the basics. And when you're looking for a shepherd these are the things you should be looking for.

A Biblical pastor knows that he must be connected to the Vine, our Lord Jesus Christ. You know this, you know this. John 15:1-5, I am the vine, you are the branches, apart from me you can do nothing. He knows that his faithfulness to God depends on being connected to Jesus Christ. And if he in his own heart and life are not connected to Jesus Christ, then he's going to be off on his primary tasks and you don't want that. He knows the success of a church, or even the failure of a church, does not reside fully on himself. A biblical pastor can't save anyone. A biblical pastor can't sanctify anyone. Those are things that simply Jesus alone does. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, that's his job. So, we preach Christ. Jesus said [John 17:17], “Sanctify them in the truth; your Word is truth.” So, he uses the Word to preach. He can't build the church because that's Jesus's job. He says, in Matthew 16:18, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” That's Jesus’s job. And so, you don't want the pastor to try and take on Jesus's job. He understands that it's paramount for him to be connected to the Vine. And it's only through Christ that he can do anything.

So, we look at 2 Timothy 4:1-5, the next 15 minutes or so. That was a lot of teaching. A lot of just giving. I know your mind is probably already full of facts and things. But I want to point out to you in this passage, a couple of things that every biblical pastor understands as he thinks about his position, and the first is this: your pastor will be judged by God. Isn’t that what the text says? [2 Timothy 4:1-2] “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the Word.” It is terrifying to stand up here and to communicate, “This is what God's Word says.” Not, this is what I hope it says. Or I ran out of time this week, good luck. But this is what it actually says and this is what it means by what it says. That's to exposit, to fillet open the text. Let what is there be the life changing thing that comes out, let us gaze upon the beauty of the Word of God.

So, Paul is being loving to Timothy, he just says, “I just charge you in the presence of God who's going to judge everyone, preach the Word, Timothy.” So, the mindset of a biblical pastor is that he's going to be judged by God. That is on his mind, every single time he preaches. So, you can see the cavalier cruise ship director mentality, it just shouldn't be part of preaching. As sure as Jesus is coming back, Timothy, preach the Word. As sure as Jesus Christ has a Kingdom that's going to appear, preach the Word. Just keep that in mind, Timothy, as you preach. So, you must know your pastor will be judged by God.

Second, your pastor must be prepared. No ifs, ands, buts about it. Notice it says 2 Timothy 4:2, “be ready in season and out of season.” That is to say, he must always, always be ready. Always. If the kids are sick all week, be ready in season and out of season. If his precious wife is sick that week, be ready in season and out of season. The car breaks down and his heating fails. Be ready. If he's sick all week and then gets better on Saturday. Be ready. If his kids have sporting events he'd like to attend, be ready. Or if you're of the other persuasion, if they have debate tournaments to go to, he must be ready. If his dog dies and his cat gets run over, God bless all the cat lovers out there. And his fish goes belly up. He's got to be ready. If you get sick, he's got to be ready. You hear me, church? If you get sick, he wants to come visit you. Unless it's like one of those really contagious things. But if you get sick, he cares. But he might just have to pray in his study for you.

Now what is his relationship to the deacons? Now we're going to start putting this all together. What is his relationship to the deacons? They serve the church so that he can focus on the primary task of preaching. Right, so they free up his time to stay focused. Acts 6:1-7 is a passage where there are two groups of widows fighting because they weren't getting the normal distribution of food, they were fighting over food. Who wants to get in the middle of two giant groups of widows fighting? The deacons. Scripture says, “We shouldn't give up preaching and the ministry of the Word for serving tables.” They probably just said that to the deacons and then let the deacons go to take care of it. But now you're seeing the relationship come in and what do we really think? I've been sick, pastor never called – primary task. I've been sick, he called me this time but not that time. He visited me this time. That was nice, he didn't visit me that time. So, for the biblical pastor, he has to stay in touch with the primary thing. The lay elders, the same thing, if they're not preaching, they're also to free up the pastor and his time. Why? Because he is commanded by God to be ready, in season and out of season.

If he has migraines during the week, multiple counseling sessions, random emails from the church, the town, the community, the landlord, other churches. He must be ready. If he preaches on Sunday morning, teaches Grace Equip, leads a small group that afternoon, teaches the men’s study and goes to the men's breakfast, guess what? He must be ready. You guys are so loving to me, and to the elders. But I need to preach these things. So that we can continue to excel still more. So that you can continue to do this and love the next guy. He must have sufficient time in his study. You'll notice that doesn't say, “Pastor's Office,” back there. It says, “Pastor’s Study,” above my door. He must have sufficient time in his study, with his nose in the book. Pastor MacArthur, who we lovingly call “J-Mac,” Pastor MacArthur says he needs to keep his rear in the seat till he has something to say. And I like to get up and walk around. So, I’m like scooting my seat all over the office, trying to get to the coffee or whatever. The pastor loves to study the Word. If you don't love the study the Word, pastoring is not your thing. The Word is, it's filled with treasure. It's filled with grand and wonderful themes about God and who he is. You can actually know God by reading the Word because it's God's Word. You want a pastor who is going to dispense that, accurately and clearly. That's what you want. The Word propels the preacher into the presence of God in his study, into the throne room of God. You are invited into the throne room of God through prayer, come boldly before the throne of God, the Word says. God invites you to come before him, like he invites me and anyone else, any other Christian – he invites you to draw near to God. Your pastor should be preaching from the overflow of his study, he just runs out of time every week.

I used to work on movies and I got, at one point, the chance to work with the Disney director of Beauty and the Beast. Very cool guy, Christian guy, probably miles away from Disney at this point. But he said, “You know, Dave, we just run out of time. The movie is never done.” And he’s like, I was in charge of Beauty and the Beast, the hand drawn version. And he says, Look at the candelabras. As the camera goes back and forth, some of the candles go on and off. Because we missed things, we just run out of time.” And the preacher always wants more time in his study, he always wants to get it just right, to get the distractions out of the way, to elevate the truth above and beyond the noise of the culture. To press through when you're having a stubborn day. And to gently present when you're having a sad day. When your heart is down, you don't know what end is up. And every single week, there's an amalgamation of different people who have different needs. And that's why it's not the pastor who's sufficient. It's the Word of God that is sufficient. So, you want the Word. His convictions must run deep. So that when society goes berserk, as they love to do, the church remains constant and stable. Why? Because we're not influenced by the world in our direction. Sure, we might comment on things that are going on to provide direction, but our direction has been written down for a long time. His messages must come from a deep well where the good water is.

So how can you help? I told you there'd be something in here for you. How can you help? Well, you can protect his time. You can do that by knowing his primary tasks. And secondly, you can make sure that he is well cared for. Well cared for, financially. Now hear me, church, you guys take care of me very well. Okay. You take care of us very well. But if your family is on one salary, don’t expect his to be on two. And prices have gone crazy with the housing market. I just looked up Purcellville, there's like seven houses in all of Purcellville for sale. So, take care of him, financially. If he's worried about how to provide for his family, he won't be thinking about yours. Okay, so take care of him. You do this well, but I just want to continue to say, “excel still more.” Galatians 6:6 says, “Let the one who is taught the Word share all good things with the one who teaches.”

The third thing you can do is use your gifts for the work of the ministry. Nothing will make your pastor more joyful than to see you excelling and growing in your spiritual life, using your gifts to build up the body of Christ. That is what brings incredible joy to a pastor. If you can teach, be well trained. Demand that the elders and those who are already trained, teach you how to teach. If you serve in a ministry, serve well. As you consider what this church would like to be, consider where it needs your help. We would like to have a couple more people singing on stage. So, we can rotate people through to have two or three people singing every single week. We would like to have another piano player who is local. So, when all the Patrick Henry students who bless our church, are gone for the summer, we have more than one person to play the piano. So, if you can do that, we will find you. Serve in the nursery, you say “Oh, I can't do kids.” Do you have children? Yeah, you can do the nursery. You can sit in there and you can watch the little babies and let them drool on you, and you can get over your germ phobia. And you can remember what it's like to take care of these shining little treasures of God. You can do that. Serve in the nursery. I told you, there'd be some ways for you guys to get involved this morning. Those who serve, here's the secret, those who serve feel most connected. Right?

Well, when you're serving and using your gifts, and you might need a season of rest, not saying that. I've been there done that. I remember when we moved to California from the Midwest, they couldn't get me to do anything for a while, at the church we were going to. And before that I was leading the missions committee, and on a deacon board – that was so unbiblical – but anyway, it like led the church and I was on that. And, you know, I was like 22 or 23. I don’t know, somewhere around there. I didn't know what I was doing. But I wasn't going to serve at all because I was burned out. Burnout means you're doing things on your strength, not God's. No such thing as burnout on God's strength. His strength is endless. So, I've been there, sometimes you just need a little break, I get that. But the people who are most connected are the ones who are serving in some way. Doing these things, allows your pastor to preach the Word. He's going to shepherd, he's going to love, he's going to pray, he's going to protect. But he needs to preach and study. Scripture is not just for the church. It also builds up your pastor so that he can be complete. So that your elders and your teachers can be complete.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” If you want your pastor equipped, force him to get in the Word so that he can be more of a blessing. The more equipped he will be, the more of a blessing he's going to be.

In conclusion, you want a Bible-filled, Bible-preaching Pastor. Primarily, that is what you want. The pastor is not to be consumed with the style of his sermons. I'm obviously not. He is not to be consumed with whether someone likes his sermons. When our pastoral candidate comes next week, his primary objective is to please God. He is to be consumed with being an approved workman, rightly handling the Word of truth [2 Timothy 2:15].

And I'll close with this, in my office back there, is a gift that you all gave me. It's a framed picture. And in that picture, there is an original manuscript from Spurgeon’s sermons. And it's got his handwriting and everything. And because we can't really read that handwriting very well, it’s got it printed out too. And this is one of my most treasured gifts. At the top of this, it reads this. And if you've forgotten everything I said, just remember this: “The true minister of Christ knows that the true value of a sermon must lie not in its fashion and manner, but in the truth which it contains.” “The true minister of Christ knows that the true value of a sermon must lie not in its fashion and manner, but in the truth which it contains.” Church, this is the key to a strong, stable future. May the next pastor be consumed with unleashing the Word of God, to his church, and to a world in need.

Let's pray.

Father God, we thank you for looking over us, for caring for us, for diligently blessing us with such a wonderful body of Christ. For people who love you, and want to be sanctified, and to know the Word.

Lord, we pray that you would bless Nick and his family as they come next week. We pray, Lord God, that you would make it clear and raise up your man. That this man would love the Word and that we would do our part to serve alongside of him and help protect and guard his time as well.

Father, this morning we just want to pray for our church. We just want to pray that you would give us a biblical pastor, Lord, for your glory.

Let's just take a moment to ask God for that right now.

Father, thank you for each and every person that you have brought here today. Lord, I pray that you would help us to love one another and be a blessing to each other. And to truly live for you, Lord. In your precious, Holy Name, Amen.