Dever's Mighty Men: August 2009

Brothers,

Forgive my tardiness in contributing to this excellent blog!

Thank you, Garrett, for creating it!

I'm in NY for my best friend's wedding, so I can't type long. Just wanted to check in and let you all know that I am still breathing.

Ryan, CONGRATS on being called at Kenwood. You have my prayers. I am confident that with the Spirit's strength you will be a compassionate and watchful shepherd.

Things are going WELL for me and Erica. The wedding was a blast. We were pleased at our pastor's presentation of the Gospel, and also with the comments we received from unbelieving family members about the service. Many of them said they appreciated the congregational singing. Score another point for the regulative principle! Erica and I were encouraged beyond belief by the presence, kind words, and generosity of our friends and family -- thanks to you guys too for sending texts, voicemails, and e-mails that week -- I was really built up.

The honeymoon was unbelievably fantastic. Ryan, Hawaii was everything you said it would be and more. We will post pictures online at some point of all our adventures -- surfing, kayaking, biking, snorkeling, beach-bumming and more. Erica and I enjoyed reading Galatians to each other nearly every day on the beach. We also started "The Rare Jewel" by Burroughs but the going has been slow -- it is very very good but we are very very human and unable to follow him for longer than a page or two.

Thank you for your prayers about the job. (Garrett, I saw that you posted on the day of my interview -- thanks!). I am now working as a music teacher at Clinton Christian School in Maryland. Scott Gurley and I are carpooling every day, which is fun. It looks like a good ministry opportunity. The school and the church attached to it are on a meager theological diet. But there are are a lot of people there that love the Lord and the lost, and they are happy to let me start every class with a devotional and a prayer. I shared the Gospel with 60 4th graders at the beginning of my classes on Tuesday this week, so pray that God would develop fruit from that and from future opportunities to do the same. I don't think that being a school teacher is my lifelong dream, but it's a great provision of God for now and I'm sure it will grow my character too.

Yesterday I went skydiving for my friend's bachelor day. YEAHHHHH BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!

I look forward to hearing updates from all of you on the blog. (Nik, I hope to return your phone call soon!!!!!) I miss you all!

MM

Brothers, Sunday marked my 10th (new)birthday and my installation as associate pastor at Kenwood. Jonathan Leeman's and Jim Hamilton's charges to me were overwhelming. I approached Sunday reflective of the shepherding task, but I wasn't prepared for the heaviness and humbling I'd feel under its weight. Please pray for the Lord's grace and mercy and for my faithfulness.

Wish you could've been there with me (and Manley)!

Hear Jim's sermon from 1 Timothy 4.6-16 here. I'm sick that we didn't get the audio of Jonathan's charge--it was remarkable! But you can read it:

Charge to Ryan Bishop, Kenwood Baptist Church, August 16, 2009

Acts 20:17-38 Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. 18 And when they came to him, he said to them: "You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, 19 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; 20 how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, 21 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. 22 And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. 24 But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. 25 And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. 26 Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, 27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. 28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. 29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31 Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears. 32 And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. 33 I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. 34 You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. 35 In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" 36 And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. 37 And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, 38 being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship.

Brother, my wife and I deeply enjoyed spending time with you and Kelli over this last spring in Washington. We both felt an immediate affection for you, and the mutual sense of, “Yes, we want to spend a lot of time with this couple.” But since you abandoned us by moving back to Kentucky, we’ve worked to console one another for our loss. Yet it’s been evident to both of us from the beginning of knowing you that you should be pastoring. And what a privilege it is for me to participate in this day with you, and how humbling to take up the task of charging you in how to care for God’s sheep.

Imagine the protocol and care that’s taken whenever the individuals who are responsible for guarding the British crown jewels pass that responsibility to someone else. How many words of instruction must be exchanged! Well, we’re talking about taking into your care something for more precious than the crown jewels—we’re talking about the eternal souls which God himself purchased with the blood of his son. This is what’s being entrusted to your care.

Therefore, my brother in Christ and fellow elder, let me offer you five charges from Paul’s words to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20.

1. Remember who you work for.

The guards watching the crown jewels (I believe they’re called beefeaters) don’t work for the jewels, they work for the queen. And so you work for the king.
In verse 19, Paul says he’s “serving the Lord.” Verse 22: he’s “constrained by the Spirit.” In verse 24, he’s received his ministry from the Lord Jesus. In verse 28, he tells the elders they’ve been made overseers by the Holy Spirit. Behind the Son and Spirit, we know is the Father. It’s a triune commission and charge that you have. Hardly something to be considered lightly.

The congregation has called you, but you don’t finally work for them. You don’t finally work for your wife and family. You don’t even work for yourself. Verse 24: “I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” You’re not pursuing popularity. You’re to resist the temptation to want to be liked. When they criticize you, remember you’re working for him. Especially when they praise you, remember you’re working for him.

Working for him, on the one hand, means you must fear God more than man and so you must be courageous in the face of opposition. Working for him, on the other hand, means you must hold them as precious as he holds them precious, and so, like the Son who died for them, lay down your life as well.

Will you intercede for them daily? Will you long for them with the longing of Christ? The Lord has given you this charge. So speak to the Lord for them. And then speak to them for the Lord. That, essentially, is your entire job description as a pastor.

2. Know and live with your flock.

I think many pastors probably lean too far in one of two directions in their pastoring. Either they lean too far toward imaging God’s transcendence, to use the theological term. All they want to do is teach from on high. Or they lean too far toward imagine his immanence. All they want to do is visit and hand hold. Good pastors, like good parents, do both. With this second point—know and live with your flock—we’re talking about the call of a shepherd to be imminent—to be with your sheep.

Just consider Paul’s example: Verse 18: You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time. Verse 19: he served with humility; he didn’t Lord it over them. He says he served with tears. Talk about empathy. Even in his teaching, he didn’t just do it publicly. Verse 20 says he taught them privately going from house to house.

I wonder if you know the difference between giving of yourself and giving yourself. When I give of myself to you, I give you something that I possess like my wisdom, my joy, my goods, or my strengths generally. Of course, I don’t really risk losing anything in the process, because I gain praise for such giving. Indeed, I can give all that I have, even my body to the flames, and have not love. When I give myself, however, I don’t just give something that I have, I give my whole self. I identify my self with your self. I start giving attention to your very name and reputation because I view them as united to my own. Any glory that I might have becomes yours, and all the glory that you have is the glory that I most enjoy. It’s mine, too!

How comparatively easy it is a husbands, fathers, mothers, and pastors to give of ourselves. Let me bless you with a little of my talent and wisdom. Oh, but how hard it is to give ourselves to our wives, our children, our flock, for God’s sake, just as Christ gave himself to the church for the Father’s sake. But this is how we in the church should love one another generally: “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together” (1 Cor. 12:26). And this is how the pastor, like the apostle Paul, should love especially: You are my “joy and crown” he said to the Philippians and Thessalonians. You are my “boast” he said to the Corinthians.

Ryan, I want you to picture this. You learn all their names. You learn their strengths and weakness, their temptations and trials, so that when the young man resists addiction, or the married woman learns not to justify herself through the opinions of others but through Christ, or the older man begins to take initiative discipling younger men, you rejoice in that as if they were your own successes. It’s your boast! And when the sister stumbles into sin, or the brother loses his job, the loss feels like it’s yours. You own it.

You can’t do any of this, of course, if you don’t build your life in and around the flock—if you don’t know them or study them. Really, you can’t teach them, not as well as you want to, if you don’t know them.

Which brings me to my third charge…

3. Teach and apply God’s word to your flock.

It’s striking to me how much the imminent posture (being with your people) works together with the transcendent posture (teaching them God’s Word).

Throughout this passage Paul has been talking about teaching them.
• Verse 20: I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that that was profitable.
• Verse 21: testifying of repentance toward God and of faith in Christ.
• Verse 24: testifying to the gospel of grace
• Verse 25: proclaiming the kingdom.
• Verses 26 and 27: he’s innocent of any man’s blood, because he has declared the whole counsel of God, like Ezekiel’s watchman.

Then in verse 28 we have that famous charge: “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock.” Why must he pay careful attention? How does he pay careful attention? Well, the following verses tell us that wolves will come and speak twisted things. In other words, paying careful attention seems to be about…teaching in a knowledgeable way, teaching in a way that’s informed of the false voices speaking into the heads of the flock. Again, you must know the flock to teach them well.

So, brother, teach and apply the Word to their lives. Teaching begins here, in this pulpit, whether from Jim or occasionally you or another elder. But that’s just the beginning. The membership of the church is to be like an echo chamber for the Word, as you echo that Word back and forth to one another, you especially, as a pastor will help to facilitate this echoing. Speak God’s Word in your prayers, in the music you help select, in your counseling, in your discipling. Ask people after the service and throughout the week if anything struck them about the sermon. Share what was helpful with you. Pattern these kinds of conversations with you wife when others come into your home.

Grab younger men and older men throughout the week and spend time with them, just as the women should do with one another, and reflect together on what God’s been teaching you through his Word personally and from this pulpit.

Call people to repentance: “O, friend, leave your sin. It’s a cruel master.” Call people to faith: “O, friend, Jesus is sweet. You can trust him.”

4. Remember the infinite weight of your task.

You have been charged with shepherding a people purchased with Christ’s own blood, verse 28 tells us. Pastors often want to grow their churches big. But stop and consider for just a moment, how valuable is a church full of only, say, 40 people. Well, the value of something can typically be measured by what people are willing to pay for it. I’ll pay $2 for a McDonald’s hamburger, because it’s worth about that much.

Now the analogy doesn’t quite work to people, because Christ didn’t purchase us because we were so valuable, but because we needed mercy. But now that Christ has purchased us with his blood, how valuable does each of the souls of that 40-person church become? As valuable as the blood which purchased them? The blood of God’s own Son? How valuable is that? Infinitely valuable? Each of the souls you’re pastoring—infinitely valuable: him, him, her, her….And what’s 40 times infinity?

We know from Hebrews 13:17 that we will give an account to the king for how we have shepherded each of our sheep. You, Ryan, will stand before God and give an account, not for the British crown jewels, which in comparison, are as valuable as the little flecks of cement dust on the sidewalk outside, but for these souls purchased by the God-man’s own blood.

Scary? Very scary. So we do it by faith, in the power of the Spirit, on our knees in humility. Leadership isn’t about some power trip. It’s about bearing the weight of life and death on your shoulders.

Ah, but there’s an inheritance in store, verse 32 tells us, which is my fifth charge:

5. Wait for the inheritance.

It’s not silver and gold we covet. It’s the inheritance which comes to all those who persevere to the end—the inheritance of beholding him, and receiving his glory.

Pastoral charges often conclude with the promise of arriving in glory and hearing Jesus’ words from Matthew 25, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” What is that? Is it heaven patting you on the back because you’re so great? No, the same verse in Matthew 25 concludes, “Enter into the joy of your master.” Christ hasn’t just given of himself to us. He’s given himself. He’s identified himself with us. So that, when you arrive at that day, having been faithful by his Spirit with his charge of giving yourself to his flock, his joy becomes yours. God’s joy…yours. Living inside of God’s own joy…as if it belonged to you.

Let me pray now, as I will continue to pray, that he would persevere you until that day, remembering who you work for, knowing the flock, teaching the flock, remembering the infinite weight of these tasks, and finally, waiting for the inheritance.