Pastor's Blog

I’ve been a pastor for many years.  Since the days in which God called me to the ministry of preaching the Word and shepherding His flock, I have regarded it as a high and holy privilege to stand behind the pulpit with an open Bible and expound its truth to spiritually hungry hearts.

Regrettably, there are many people who want nothing to do with God’s truth.  Obviously the unregenerate world—those who don’t know Jesus Christ—don’t want to hear God’s truth.  They don’t want to be confronted with their cherished sins and their need of repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  But what I have found interesting over the years is the surprising number of people in evangelical churches—most of them professing Christians—who do not want to hear the truth.  They are content to hear simple Bible stories or religious platitudes, but when faced with the dynamic truths of Scripture that rebuke sin and demand change, they will find excuses to avoid God’s Word.  It took a while, but I finally learned that this is a reality in our evangelical churches.

There aren’t many professing Christians in our churches who are willing to say plainly, “I don’t want to hear God’s Word.”  After all, that’s supposed to be the reason why they go to church!   Their rejection of God’s Word more often takes the form of statements such as, “Well, that’s his interpretation,” or “I just can’t agree with that interpretation,” or “Dr. ‘So and So’ says it means something else,” or “His preaching is too hard to follow,” or “He’s over my head.”  After being in the ministry for a long time, I have heard them all, and they are remarkably consistent from church to church and preacher to preacher.

It’s no wonder, then, that the Apostle Paul found so much joy in the Thessalonian church.  This little congregation, founded by Paul, Silas, and Timothy on Paul’s second missionary excursion, proved to be a model church—“an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia,” Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 1:7.  The word of the Lord had “reverberated” from them throughout Greece (v. 8), backed up by the testimony of their changed lives.  Paul is clear; he and his team “had much boldness . . . to speak to you the gospel of God amid much opposition” (2:2).  He goes on to say that having been entrusted with the Gospel, they spoke not to please men, but God who examines their hearts (v. 4).

Then Paul turns to the Thessalonians and says this:  “For this reason we constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted, not the word of men, but what it really is, the word of God which also performs its work in you who believe” (2:13).  Here was a church that accepted the Word of God as the Word of God.  They understood that the Scriptures were not of human origin, but were the revealed truth of the true and living God.  To preach this truth was costly for Paul; to receive it and accept it was costly for the Thessalonians.  It was changing their lives, and as a result, they had to endure the sufferings common to those who believe in the Lord Jesus.

Never forget that “the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of the soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb 4:12).  This God-breathed Book is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness,” and is effective in equipping believers for Christian service (2 Tim 3:16-17).

So when a church truly hungers for God’s Word and appreciates the authoritative exposition of Scripture, the faithful preacher rejoices, as Paul did, who called the Thessalonians his glory and his joy (1 Thess 2:20).  Are you that kind of Christian—are you the joy of your faithful pastor’s heart?