The Disposition of Biblical Oversight, Part 1

Driving home: So then in this lecture we are concerned to capture the major traits of a man's nature, the prevailing or essential qualities of his spirit or of his soul that must mark him as he fulfills the task of biblical oversight.

Examples of a 'happy disposition' or 'serious disposition' are used to define 'disposition' as an essential or dominant quality of one's nature.

For example, we speak of a certain individual and say he has a happy disposition. And what we mean by that is that cheerfulness, happiness, is an essential or dominant quality of that man's nature. If we say assertiveness. If we say a certain man has a serious disposition, we are saying that the prevailing character of his soul, of his spirit is one of seriousness.

1:40 - 2:11 Read in full sermon

The point: As a minister, you ought to be sufficiently like Christ to be able to say, 'Be followers of me, even as I am of Christ.'

Martin addresses the common saying 'don't look at man, look at Christ' to justify his approach of using Paul as a model, arguing that the Bible encourages looking at men who are like Christ.

we have been cursed with this little ditty, don't look at man, look at Christ. The Bible says, look at men who are like Christ. And as a minister, you ought to be sufficiently like him to be able to say, be followers of me, even as I am of Christ. Philippians 3 and verse 17, Brethren, be imitators together of me, and mark them that so walk even as you have us for an example.

10:33 - 11:09 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And if there be not a conformity unto him herein, no man can assure his own conscience or the church of God that he is or can be lawfully called unto this office.

A lengthy quote from John Owen's treatise on the true nature of a gospel church is used to underscore the necessity of conformity to Christ's example in ministerial qualifications and endowments.

those who follow and imitate Christ. Listen to Owen on this point before I come to my third head under the introduction, my frustration, and confession. On page 49 of volume 16 in that masterful treatise on the true nature of a gospel church, the section in which he's dealing with the offices of the church, he writes, and if we would know what ministerial qualifications and endowments are for the substance of them, we may learn them in their great example and pattern from our Lord, Jesus Christ himself. Our Lord Jesus Christ being

13:54 - 14:39 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The concept of worldly authority and position and how power and authority properly conferred are to be exercised is not to be carried over into the kingdom of God.

The story of the ambitious mother of James and John and the other disciples' reaction in Matthew 20 is used to set the context for Jesus' teaching on servanthood versus worldly ambition.

you have an ambitious mother who wants her sons to have special places in the kingdom of Christ certainly wants Christ central doesn't want to push him off his throne but the left and right hand the two greatest places of honor she would have for her sons. But now we read in Matthew 20 and picking up the reading in verse 25 when the other disciples heard about this desiring places of position themselves they're all upset thinking maybe mamas gotten in and preempted them. I mean it's a sorry sickening paragraph of human ambition and carnal desire.

22:51 - 23:35 Read in full sermon

The point: Ask God to baptize your heart with the spirit of assertive servanthood in these formative days before you ever think of taking a congregation.

The analogy of a husband's leadership in the family is used to illustrate the difference between passive, non-assertive servanthood (following whims) and assertive servanthood (leading from God's Word while serving).

servanthood finds its most natural expression it's relatively easy to have a passive non-assertive servanthood you just wet your finger see which way the winds of desire and domestic inclination are blowing and you just sort of engineer the family into the way the wind is blowing never being assertive saying from the word of God and in the secret place I'm convinced that these are some bona fide goals for us as a husband and wife and here I want to open them up from the word of God here is the biblical basis and we're going to make this a matter

39:09 - 39:54 Read in full sermon

The point: Ask God to baptize your heart with the spirit of assertive servanthood in these formative days before you ever think of taking a congregation.

The analogy of a parent stooping to help a first-grader with a difficult math problem is used to illustrate assertive servanthood in action, showing willingness to serve in humility.

it's easy to lord it over them want this of you want that of you want this of you but then as they're struggling and making a bona fide effort to draw alongside and be willing to become a first grader again and empathetically struggle with that math problem that to you could be done in the middle of the night in your sleep but to him is an obstacle as big to climb over as if he were asked without any assistance to climb over the world trade center and you stoop to serve your little first grader stoop to serve you get what I'm talking about assertive servanthood

40:37 - 41:22 Read in full sermon

The point: Understand that you exist for the church, and your gifts are given that the church might be saved, mature, preserved, and glorified, not for your own benefit.

The metaphor of ministers viewing the church as a 'sponge to soak up their almighty gift of preaching' or a 'cloud to be regulated by their almighty gift for leadership' is used to highlight a distorted, self-serving view of ministry.

its form from that of our lord who said i am among you as he that serves gentile rulers lorded down upon their underlings in the kingdom of god you lead as you serve and as you serve you see your people do not exist for you but you exist for them if we could this day call from the ministry all the ministries who think that their people exist

42:52 - 43:34 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second disposition is 'meekness with its handmaidens of lowliness and gentleness.' Martin uses Matthew 11:28-30 as the pivotal text, where Christ invites people to learn from…

The imagery of a 'yoke' (for carrying water or plowing) from Matthew 11 is explored to explain what it means to come under Christ's authority and learn from his meekness.

and they have this beautiful conjunction of authority with meekness and lowliness verse 28 Matthew 11 come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn of me and whatever else we make of the yoke whether here our Lord is referring to the yoke by which a man would go to the watering hole or to the well and carry back his water and the Lord is saying my yoke unlike those that you see by which a man carries his water pots his light or whether he is thinking

45:48 - 46:32 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second disposition is 'meekness with its handmaidens of lowliness and gentleness.' Martin uses Matthew 11:28-30 as the pivotal text, where Christ invites people to learn from…

The contrast between a king riding a war horse ('charger') and Christ riding meekly on an ass is used to symbolize the conjunction of kingly authority with a disposition of meekness.

comes unto thee how can one think of king without the concept of rule and authority and power and dominion thy king cometh meek and riding upon an ass meek authority power government but a disposition of meekness so pervasive to that wound that he will as it were give an external symbol he comes not riding upon the charger

49:30 - 50:13 Read in full sermon

Driving home: may I suggest that meekness is the description or is the disposition characterized by the absence of carnal self-assertiveness

Examples of Christ pronouncing woes and cleansing the temple, and Moses smashing the stone tablets, are used to demonstrate that meekness does not preclude boldness, vociferousness, or holy anger.

the two great proofs of that are our Lord and Moses the one who said come for I am meek and lowly as the one who in a few verses before pronounced the woes of judgment upon the impenitent cities in northern Palestine who put such fear into their to those people that would defile his father's temple as we saw in our studies in Mark that he put himself as a sentinel after he cleansed the temple and no one it said dared pass through even with a picnic basket. The idea that

55:15 - 55:59 Read in full sermon

The point: We must be men, by the grace of God, who like our Lord are meek and lowly, seeking the food of the spirit from the fullness of Jesus and the Spirit of Christ.

Paul's imagery of being 'gentle in the midst of you as when a nurse cherishes her own children' (1 Thessalonians 2:7) is used as a beautiful illustration of meekness and gentleness in ministry.

that a man has for the well-being of his people and then that beautiful imagery of first Thessalonians 2 and verse 7 and though I'm aware of the textual problems involving just a letter or two in the original first Peter 2 and verse 7 we were gentle in the midst of you as when a nurse cherishes her own children that beautiful image of meekness and gentleness a nurse cherishing warming holding to her breast her own children that's how we were in our ministry among

61:06 - 61:51 Read in full sermon