Faithful Stewards: The
Training of Pastor-Teachers; 1 Corinthians 4:2
The only two
communication gifts that are left for the church age are evangelists and
pastor-teachers. According to Ephesians
1 Corinthians 4:1 NASB
“Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.”
Ephesians 1:9-11 NASB
“He made known to us the mystery of His will.” That which is communicated today
that is unrevealed truth for the church age, and it
has a focal point, and that focal point is not just today, it is the future,
the Millennium. “…according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him
Paul is writing this in a
context where up to this point in human history God’s plan for the Millennial
kingdom has primarily focused on the Jews. The Jews thought of the Millennial kingdom as their kingdom. They were the ones who
were going to rule and reign. There are passages such as Isaiah 2 which talks
about how all of the nations will come to the holy
Going back to our passage in
1 Corinthians 4, we are stewards, managers; we have a responsibility for
communicating the mysteries of God, i.e. the revelation of God. The emphasis is
not on building the church, it is not on church growth, it is not on managing
programs, it is not on counselling; it is on communicating to believers what
God has revealed in the New Testament with primary emphasis on the unique spiritual
life of the church age. That is its focal point. We have to teach the whole
counsel of God, and it doesn’t exclude teaching the Old Testament because Paul
says in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 that “These things were written as an example
for us.” So this includes teaching the entire Scripture from Genesis to Revelation,
but it ultimately feeds into that purpose of communicating to believers how to
live that unique spiritual life of the church age for the purpose of preparing
us to rule and reign with Jesus Christ in the future Millennial
kingdom and to glorify Him.
In order to do this we have
to recognize what God’s evaluative framework is for pastor-teachers, and that
is 1 Corinthians 4:2 NASB “In this case, moreover, it is required of
stewards that one be found trustworthy.” The word “stewards” takes us back to
verse 1, so we know exactly what Paul is talking about. He is talking about
those who have this responsibility to communicate the gospel. What is required
of them is that they be found faithful, and this is the Greek noun PISTOS [pistoj] which means to be faithful, to be trustworthy, and
to be responsibility in terms of one’s mission. So the mission given the
pastor-teacher is to communicate the mystery doctrines of the church age. He is
not the man who is there to visit, he is not to emphasize church growth, he is
not there to conduct a social plan for the church, to promote some social
agenda for the society at large, he is not there to be the hospital visitor, to
be the friend and buddy of the people in the congregation, he is there for the
primary purpose of teaching the Word of God and equipping the saints to do the
work of the ministry in relationship to the mystery doctrine of the church age.
So how is the pastor to be faithful?
1)
He is to be
faithful in his preparation. As he begins to grow and mature in his spiritual
life it will become evident to the man who has this gift that he has it, and he
needs to begin to prepare and utilize that gift, just as any other believer in
the body of Christ is to utilize their spiritual gift.
2)
He is to be
faithful to continue his education (not only his preparation). All you get in
seminary are the seeds of your education and you spend the rest of your life as
a pastor learning more and more.
3)
Pastors need to
be faithful in time management. One of the greatest challenges of a pastor is
to manage his time and his priorities. While his primary responsibility is to
study and teach he also has responsibilities to lead the congregation. The
smaller the congregation the more he has other responsibilities in terms of administration,
and things of that nature. He has his own personal responsibilities, in his own
spiritual growth and spiritual life. Then he has responsibilities in terms of
his family.
4)
He is not to try
and reinvent the wheel. The pastor doesn’t have to try and reinvent everything, he can build on what others have done.
5)
He is not to
simply warm up someone else’s leftovers.
6)
The danger to the
pastor-teacher is arrogance. There is antinomian arrogance in many pastors, they don’t want to be accountable to anyone in any
area. There is authority arrogance where some pastors seek to extend their authority
beyond the pulpit and to actually get in the face of people in their daily
lives. There is financial arrogance where pastors seek to fleece the sheep and
are motivated by money. There is academic arrogance where those who have
seminary training look down on those who don’t. There is success arrogance. It
is always wrong for the pastor to get his eyes on someone else’s ministry, on
its size, on its expansion, the lifestyle of some other pastor.
7)
Pastors are not
expected by the Lord to do anything beyond feeding the sheep. They shouldn’t
get involved in politics, hospital visitation, or administration. All of these things
distract the pastor.
8)
A good
pastor-teacher is going to think outside of the box of traditional church
implementation. By this is not meant that he is going to come up with new ideas
such as the new idea of church growth or innovative culturally-relevant
programs, or that he going to use music that isn’t traditional. He is going to
think in terms of the job of the pastor-teacher which is to equip believers to
do the work of the ministry. The job of the pastor is to teach people in the pew
how to think about life biblically. That’s it; everything else is secondary. If
he is not accomplishing that it doesn’t matter what else is being accomplished,
he is failing to be faithful, a faithful steward of the ministry of God.