By Jim Howe
When I first became a father, we moved from Palo Alto,
California next door to Stanford University, to
Etna, California the front door of the Marble Mountains. In Palo Alto, I had
studied both Greek and Hebrew along with exegesis, and a smattering of church
history. I studied with J. I. Packer, Ray Stedman, R. C. Sproul, Bruce Waltke, Steve
Newman, Jack Crabtree, and Ray Ortlund (Junior) among others at Peninsula Bible
Church in the non-accredited Scribe School where I received a good foundation
for life and ministry. I completed the two-year program and went off to begin a
lifetime of service in the Church. Kerry and I took our young two-month-old son
Jeremiah, everything we owned, and moved to the far north of California.
I was still relatively new to the Christian faith. I had
come to faith in the spring of 1970 and it was 1979. The mountain air of Siskiyou County was
exhilarating, and my own struggles existentially drew me deeper in my belief. I
was immersed in reading Francis Schaeffer, translating Paul’s monumental letter
to the Romans in the early morning hours and wrestling with reasons for faith.
I often went outside in the early morning to watch the stars while crying out
to God to reveal Himself to me. God was at work then as He is today. The
fellowship of the church where I served part time as a youth pastor was
rich. There were several young couples
like us that were drawn to the country and to Jesus out of the Jesus movement
that had swept the west coast. We
studied the Bible together in a fellowship group. God was doing something transformative
in our lives, and it attracted even more people to join us.
I was learning what it meant to see life through the dual
vision of “pastor” and through the spectacles of Holy Scripture. As I think
about this dual perspective I think of the thick glasses I wore to see the
world and to read the Bible where God revealed Himself to me. On my birthday,
October 7, 1979, Kerry, my wife, and I awoke to the sound of gun shots outside
the home we were renting. We looked out the window and Kerry said, “There is a
four-point buck, get your rifle!” It was the last day of deer season. I grabbed
my newly rebuilt .30-6 Winchester with the Redfield scope. But I didn’t grab my
glasses because I was in a hurry, I could not find the buck in the scope. One
eye was focused with the aid of the scope but the other could not see well
enough to get the deer in the sites. Certain to get a buck if I could get a
good shot, I missed my best chance of the season. As much as Kerry tried to
point my body in the right direction, I simply could not see the buck without
the aid of my glasses even though I had the powerful magnification of the
scope.
There is a two-fold vision laid before us in 1
Thessalonians 2:9-16. We need pastors to
pursue a high level of commitment to care for the people, and we need
congregations that are hungry for the Word of God. Paul is the human instrument God used to care
for the people, and the Scriptures are the divine instrument through which God
speaks to the hearers. Read carefully what Paul shared about his personal
relationship with the young congregation and the way they heard the Word of God. You will notice the responsibility Paul had
to care for the people, and their response to the message proclaimed:
1 Thessalonians 2:9–16 (ESV) 9 For you
remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might
not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. 10
You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our
conduct toward you believers. 11 For you know how, like a father
with his children, 12 we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you
and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own
kingdom and glory. 13 And we also thank God constantly for this,
that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted
it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is
at work in you believers. 14 For you, brothers, became imitators of
the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the
same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, 15
who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and
displease God and oppose all mankind 16 by hindering us from
speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure
of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!
The relational
commitment of the apostolic team associated with Paul was of the highest
caliber. The response to the word of God
by the congregation was surely supernatural.
Paul’s fatherly
care and the congregation’s response to the word of God form the binocular
vision I wish to bring out. G. K. Beale put it this way:
Christians in a local church need to know one another
well enough in order that they can know, pray for and even meet one another’s
needs. Such behavior breathes the air of
the first-century church. We in today’s impersonal technological age need to be
more like our first-century ancestors in the faith.[1]
Personal engagement by pastors and by the hearers is
essential. I needed both of my eyes to see
the deer. We need both pastors and
elders who care deeply to be one focus of our attention, and with the other eye
focused to make sure our hearts hang on every word that proceeds from the mouth
of God.
We live in a time where the expectations we have for the
Church have been lessened. Covid19 has
shut down churches and lessened the kind of pastoral care that can be
given. We need to be “more” the church, not less.
That means we cannot expect to care for one another in these challenging
times with more technology and less real human contact. God is the One we serve not a state governor.
We have found ourselves listening to more sermons online. Many have found that so many mega church
pastors are more entertaining their own. But we do not need a consumer driven
focus or a need focused sermon. We need
to hear from God through the God ordained servant of the word He has called to
speak to us. We also need the personal
touch with one another as we care for one another.
As I desperately
wanted venison in my refrigerator, there is a deeply God-centered need to be
more like the first-century church.
Where did the early church meet? In sanctuaries with social distancing?
No, they met in homes. What did the government have to say about their
gathering? Nothing, until they began to stand against the idol of the time
shaped in the form of Caesar. Who is
Lord today? Our focus is higher than the
politics of the nations. Love for God
and neighbor remain our concern. While we want to show care for one another in
the face of this virus. Let us remember that less than 2% of the people who get
the virus die. Is there something deeper
at stake? We are called to care for one
another as the people of God, as the early church did in the face of
persecution, and at times sickness that shook the Roman world. In a time of great untruths propagated through
the media, we are called to hear the word of God above all words. We are to listen to God and to care for one
another.
Two simple focuses: care for one another and a careful
listening to the word of God as God speaking to us. The post-Covid church will not look like it
did in the past. God is working to make
the Church to be the Bride of Christ through His sovereign providence that we
might reveal His glory in this time and serve to bring His kingdom in a very
broken world.
Listen to the deep yearning of the Spirit in your heart
to gather, to care for one another and to hear the Word of God. God will not be
frustrated. God in His providence is
doing something bigger. God is starting
a movement in the heart of His people. A
restless cry to be the Church.
Listen to Andrew Peterson sign and you will hear the
Spirit working in us all a restlessness to be the movement of the
kingdom: https://youtu.be/YhQv6gFxIn8
Father, create in us a desire to be the Church in a deep
way. Stir in us a restlessness that
won’t settle for state sanctioned freedom to worship when You call us to share
the gospel with all our neighbors, families and friends. Break our hearts for the hopeless all around
us, and fill us with the hope of Jesus Christ.
Raise up godly elders and teaching elders to serve the church beyond the
limitation of this time. Father, we
surrender to your providence and seek for ways to be the
Church in new wineskins of deepened community and deep listening to the Word of
God.
Praise God! Thank you for pointing us to the Light in these fearful times.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reminding me of the real life... clinging to gospel.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Praying for you as you climb in the trees.
Delete"Lord help us to be faithful to your calling."
ReplyDeleteLove & prayers to you & kerry!!