51a) Disposition of Biblical Oversight, #1

Introduction to the Disposition of Biblical Oversight

0:03 Now we come this morning, brethren, to the second consideration of the biblical task of oversight, as we sought to remind you in consulting the abstract last week, we now take up what is part four in the overall structure of our pastoral theology course, namely the work of oversight, government, and shepherding by the man of God in the pastoral office. And as we are addressing the concern of the biblical description of the task, last week we focused our attention upon the task in its essence, seeking to exegete the major

0:44 text which expressed the essence of this task as one of shepherding, of caring for the household of God, of exercising rule and government over the people of God. We now proceed to what is...

1:01 ...set forth in your abstract as Roman numeral II under the biblical description of the task, namely the task in its governing disposition.

Defining Disposition and Explaining the Selective Principle

1:12 And as we take up this subject today, and God willing again in our lectures next Friday, I want to begin with a rather lengthy introduction in which I will set before you, first of all, a definition, and then give a word of explanation regarding the selective principle that has been operative in bringing these materials together, and then make a confession of my sense of frustration as we stand on the threshold of dealing with this subject. First of all, then, a definition of disposition. We're dealing with the task of oversight now, not as to the essence of the task that's locked

1:52 up in those four categories of words that we studied last week, but the disposition. And what do I mean by the term disposition? Well, one of the formal definitions of disposition in our English dictionaries is the normal or the prevailing aspect of a man's nature, an essential quality of his nature. We speak of someone who has a happy disposition.

2:23 And what we mean is that cheerfulness or evident happiness is a dominant, prevailing aspect of his nature. We say of another person he has a serious disposition. Or he has an irritable disposition. Well, it's in that sense that I'm using this term.

2:42 We're going to address the subject of the disposition that is the ruling or essential qualities of our nature that ought to be present as we seek to discharge the biblical task of shepherding, of taking care of, of ruling. But in essence, it's one of the four. This is Thyatira. This is Thyatira.

3:00 This is the halation. and governing God's people in God's house. Now, as we approach these things, we are not addressing what may be in a man by a combination of genetic predisposition, good training, ordinary social culture, but we're focusing on those things that are, for the most part, the products and the fruit of the work of God's grace. They are not natural dispositional aspects, but they are supernatural, they are gracious, they are elements of the disposition of the overseer that are inwrought by the power of the Holy Spirit.

3:43 But now, secondly, an explanation of the selective principle employed. Among the many graces and character traits that ought to be present in effective pastoral oversight, what standard or principle has governed my selection of those that I will highlight both today and, God willing, next week? Well, the answer is this. I've chosen to take our Lord Jesus Christ as the perfect pattern and exemplar of the disposition of effective oversight, and the Apostle Paul and others insofar as they mirror and illustrate those graces that are manifested in their fullness in the Lord Jesus.

4:27 And I've taken... I've taken this approach basically for two reasons.

4:31 First of all, because of Christ's specific identity as the chief shepherd and overseer of our souls. In 1 Peter chapter 5, in one of the few passages in the New Testament explicitly addressed to elders or overseers,

4:52 Peter describes the Lord Jesus in that context in verse 4 as the chief shepherd He is speaking to under-shepherds who are to shepherd the flock of God. Verse 2. And in that setting, he points to Christ as the archipoimen, as the chief shepherd. And surely then, in a setting where he is charging elders with their task of shepherding the flock of God, and he makes reference to Christ as the chief shepherd, as the archipoimen, we are warranted to assume that Peter expects us to see in Christ

5:36 the perfect shepherd, the impeccable exemplar not only of the functions of shepherding, but of the disposition with which those functions are carried out. In Hebrews 13 and verse 20, he is called the shepherd of the sheep, the great one. And here you don't have a single word, but you have the descriptive word. He is the great shepherd of the sheep.

6:08 And as the chief shepherd and as the great shepherd, he exemplifies all that shepherding is and ought to be. And then in 1 Peter 2 verse 25, he is called the poimen and the episkopos. Very interesting. That shepherd and bishop, shepherd and overseer of our souls are brought together in the closest conjunction with reference to the Lord Jesus.

6:35 And where we saw last week in Acts chapter 20 and in 1 Peter 5 too, that the concepts of shepherding and overseeing are brought into intimate conjunction with respect to the work of elders, then surely seeing this conjunction in the Lord Jesus, we are warranted to expect that in him we will see the perfection of the disposition with which the work of shepherding and bishoping is to be carried out. And so when we read in the scriptures that the generic duty of every Christian is to walk as he walked, 1 John 2.6, to follow his example or follow his steps, 1 Peter 2.21,

7:20 then with respect to this task we should constantly keep before us the Lord Jesus as the perfect pattern of what he is. It is to be a God-honoring shepherd. And very interestingly in Owen's treatment in volume 16 on the true nature of a gospel church when he's addressing the subject of the task of pastors and I don't know if it is here that John Brown got his clue or they just were reading the same Bible and came to these convictions independently but on page 48 where he speaks of pastoral feeding being comprised of two fundamental activities teaching or instruction secondly, rule or discipline.

8:05 And he says all the tasks of the elder can be subsumed under those two headings teaching and ruling. And then as he goes on to amplify what it is that constitutes a man a true shepherd, a true gift of Christ to his church he says it will be those who have the qualifications that are set forth in scripture. Then on page 49 he says, he makes this point and if we would know what these qualifications and endowments are for the substance of them we may learn them in their great example and pattern our Lord Jesus Christ himself. Our Lord Jesus Christ being

8:49 the good shepherd the sheep are the shepherd and bishop of our souls the chief shepherd notice taking all of these terms from the text I've set before you did design in the undertaking and exercise of his pastoral office to give a type and example unto all those that are to be called unto the same office under him. 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. So Owen is saying

9:33 if we do not see in us and if the church does not see in us some reflection of the pattern of Christ himself as the chief shepherd the good shepherd the shepherd and bishop of our souls then we have no grounds to believe that such a one is both equipped and given by Christ as a gift to his church. So the first reason then for this approach of seeking to focus on the church is primarily upon our Lord Jesus as the perfect pattern and exemplar of the disposition of effective oversight is because of his unique place as the chief shepherd or the great shepherd

10:16 the shepherd and bishop of our souls and then of course the explicit command to follow and imitate those who follow and imitate Christ. And therefore it is not enough to say we will take Christ and Christ alone as our pattern because the spirit of Christ speaking in the word of Christ in the inscripturated documents of the New Testament gives us explicit commands not only to follow Christ but to imitate those who have followed and imitated him. And the key texts I am sure are familiar to you but let me at least read them. 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 16

The Mandate to Imitate Christ and His Followers

10:59 1 Corinthians 4 and verse 16 I beseech you therefore be imitators of me. Now there was a particular concern that the apostle was highlighting but it's not necessary for us to go into what that concern was the principle is this here the apostle mandates that those who receive this letter imitate him. And then in chapter 11 and verse 1 of the same epistle the apostle says be imitators of me even as I also am Christ. Now on the surface of things that sounds like an arrogant claim.

11:42 He doesn't say the imitators of me in so far as I am of Christ but he says in the same way that I set Christ before my eyes as a pattern to be followed you set me before your eyes as a pattern to be followed. And Paul was not claiming sinlessness he was not claiming infallibility. But he was saying follow me even as not in so far as I follow Christ that's often the way we read it but that isn't what the text says be imitators of me even as I also am of Christ. And then in Philippians chapter 3 it goes beyond the unique position of apostolic pattern and example

12:25 brethren be imitators together of me same command but furthermore mark them that so walk even as you have us for an example mark those that walk in such a way that they are worthy of being imitated and as surely as you imitate and follow me follow them as well. And then chapter 4 in verse 9 the things that you both learned and received and heard and saw in me these things do and the God of peace shall be with you.

13:10 He was able to say that his teaching was not merely the concepts that were in his mind and were framed by his words and imparted by an effective teaching method the things you both learned and received but he said you not only heard but you saw them in me. These things do and the God of peace shall be with you. And then in 2 Thessalonians 3 in verse 9 here he buttresses his instruction with his own example. The problem you remember was laziness under the guise of super piety among some of the members of the church at Thessalonica and as Paul is addressing that issue

13:55 he says in 2 Thessalonians 3 and verse 9 not because we have not the right that is the right to live of the gospel but to make ourselves an example an example an example unto you that you should imitate us. And then he specifies in the context the particular concern even when we were with you this we commanded you if any will not work neither let him eat and he says we exemplified that not only were we working in gospel endeavors but we labored with our own hands that we might not burden any of you and we did this to make ourselves an example that you should imitate us. And then the Acts 20.35

14:39 passage which has peculiar relevance to the whole matter of the work of the eldership not only in its essence but in its disposition Paul was conscious that in living and laboring amongst the Ephesians that he was setting a pattern in all things I gave you an example that so laboring you ought to help the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he himself said it is my job to help you. It is more blessed to give than to receive. So he was conscious of this stewardship of being an example not to the people of God only in a general sense but even to these leaders to these elders and manifested in his own lifestyle

15:23 those things that they were to follow.

Confession of Frustration and Call for Input

15:28 In taking this primary principle of Christ as the perfect pattern and the Apostle Paul and others in so far as they mirror and illuminate the graces that are found in their fullness in Christ this is the biblical basis for adopting that principle. Having spent a few moments on definition what we mean by disposition an explanation of this selective principle I do want to make this confession of frustration. It is impossible to be exhaustive in dealing with the subject of the disposition that must characterize the task of oversight and still do justice to the whole world. I believe we would not be beating the issue thin at the edges

16:13 to take the rest of this semester and examine this subject of the disposition that ought to mark us as overseers amongst God's people. But in so doing we would disrupt something of the symmetry of the eight units of pastoral theology and so there comes a point where one must be selective and one must exercise the rigid discipline of exclusion. But I feel that frustration because as I've noted in your notes in being selective I have the fear of being arbitrary or prejudicially selective. The moment we become selective before any material there's something operative in us that is making us choose this

16:57 and bypass another. Now as much as we try to be objective and are conscious that there are dispositional as well as conditioning factors that will influence what we pick up and what we pass over I'm conscious that I cannot come to this without my own prejudices without my own predispositions and I'm conscious that I've had to be selective and I'm fearful of being arbitrarily or prejudicially selective but my comfort is this I've sought the insight of others and in my own reading of the word I'm continually seeking to be open and sensitive to perspectives that hitherto I may not be able to see. I may not have considered and even in reworking

17:42 this material for today and God willing for next week there has been some expansion that has come through the input of others and so I can only continue to pray and ask that God will help us to neutralize as much as possible the negative influence of arbitrary or prejudicial selectivity. But then thirdly I feel under this matter of the sense of frustration that I'm what I'm giving really as an exhortation is that you be on the lookout in your own reading of the word for any major characteristic that you feel may have been missed and hopefully you can enrich this course if the Lord spares us to teach it again in four years and I mean that

Disposition of Assertive Servanthood: Definition and Christ's Example

18:26 sincerely and would welcome your input. Well with that lengthy introduction behind us let's now move to the specific elements of the disposition required and remember we're here focusing not upon the disposition of the man of God in his general broad ministerial tasks but not exclusively primarily on the disposition that ought to mark the work of oversight government and shepherding by the man of God. That is the peculiar primary focus of our concern. Now we can't isolate that from the disposition that ought to mark the man of God when he preaches but we've addressed some of those things and hope these things

19:11 if they characterize him in his work of government and shepherding they will also be present when he stands to preach and minister in a more public way but we're thinking more particularly though not exclusively in an airtight category of those specific elements of the disposition required as they relate to this work of oversight government and shepherding of God's people and I would put at the top of the list if we miss everything else and we are deficient in everything else in this we dare not we cannot be deficient what I'm calling a disposition of assertive servanthood. Now I'm not sure if that term is original with me I think

19:55 I may have first encountered it in Betty Elliot's book The Mark of a Man but I'm not sure and whether I encountered it or something similar to that I'm not sure so if you find it elsewhere I've not deliberately plagiarized and not given acknowledgement I just can't recall but the terms whether I first heard them or heard something that triggered those words in my mind bring together what in my understanding is so beautifully and clearly and pervasively manifested in our Lord Jesus and must to some degree be evident in us or we will simply not have the fundamental disposition essential to the work of oversight namely the disposition

20:39 of assertive servanthood now let me seek to explain the biblical roots for that strange combination of words for you think of the servant as being the non-assertive one who does the will of his master if you think of assertive you think of someone leading and not serving but assertive servanthood is the disposition so clearly manifested in the Lord Jesus and ought to be manifested in us and we shall see was so clearly manifested in the Apostle Paul and even commended by Peter turn with me now to several texts which warrant this conjunction of words assertive servanthood in Luke chapter 6

21:24 in Luke chapter 6 the Lord Jesus says to his own Luke 6 verses 46 and 47 and why do you call me I should say those who were professing to be his own why do you call me why do you call me Lord Lord and do not the things which I say everyone that comes to me and hears my word and does them I will show you to whom he is like here the Lord Jesus takes to himself the title of Lord he does not in any way push it away from him he acknowledges it is right that he should be acknowledged as the sovereign Lord as the ruler

22:08 as the one who governs them he says now you give me that proper title but you are not manifesting the outworking of that in your own practical experience you call me Lord Lord and you are not doing the things that I say and then he says that everyone's true spiritual state is to be determined by whether or not Christ is not merely called Lord but manifestly regarded as Lord in terms of adherence to his pronouncements everyone who comes to me hears my word and is doing them I will show you to whom he is like and then we have the analogy of the wise and the foolish builder

22:52 so here our Lord takes the place of unashamed assertiveness I am Lord and if you claim to own me as your Lord I expect you to obey me as your Lord and then of course in the well-known words of the Great Commission as he says sends out his own he first of all points to his own plenary authority all authority verse 18b has been given unto me in heaven and on earth and as the one possessed of plenary authority in mediatorial function and responsibility I mandate that going therefore you make disciples of all the nations

23:36 baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to keep to observe all things so ever I commanded you if ever we find assertiveness in our risen Lord it is here all authority has been delivered unto me grounded in that authority you will go forth and going forth you are to make disciples of the nations and having brought people to discipleship by the proclamation of the word they are to be openly identified with the word with me in conjunction with my inter-trinitarian relation with the Father and the Spirit then you are to teach them to observe whatsoever

24:20 I have commanded you here is dominant assertiveness by our risen Lord and in John 13 and verse 13 we find the assertiveness again in a very unusual setting as you know and we'll have occasion to come back to it in the very setting in which our Lord is taking the place of servanthood he says in verse 13 you call me teacher and Lord and you say well for so I am I am your authoritative teacher and I am your sovereign Lord you give me those names and in so doing you are not giving titles that go beyond the warrant of reality

25:04 you call me teacher and Lord and you say well for so I am here are several passages in which we find our Lord in the company of his friends assertive with respect to what is his by divine appointment what is his by inherent right in terms of governing guiding ruling directing his own now we turn to the passages that show assertive servanthood and we come to the pivotal passage Matthew chapter 20 verse Matthew chapter 20 and what we have in Matthew 20 is the great principle

25:49 of assertive servanthood given to us in a didactic form and then in the second watershed passage John 13 we have it given to us illustrated in the actual actions of our Lord Jesus and here in Matthew 20 we have the watershed passage in terms of a didactic passage setting forth the principle of assertive servanthood among those whom God will place as leaders within his church remember the context the mother of the sons of Zebedee are asking a favor of the Lord and they want to have positions of prominence and influence

26:34 in the coming kingdom but Jesus answered and said you don't know what you're asking verse 22 are you able to drink the cup that I'm about to drink and they said and they said unto him we are able and he said my cup indeed you shall drink I had no time to go into this on the evening but you'll notice in the context and why we have to be careful about making general statements the cup always means this and leaven always means that in this setting the cup is what our Lord referred to in verses 17 to 19 and that was the suffering at the hands of men they should deliver him to Gentiles to mock to scourge to crucify James and John drank of that cup James was beheaded John was exiled James was beheaded you see that was a cup of suffering

27:18 at the hands of men not the cup presented to him in the garden the suffering at the hands of his father so just a little aside I didn't have time to go into it this past Lord's Day but some of you it might be fresh in your mind and say wait a minute how's that fit well that's how it squares alright now in that setting the Lord then goes on to say after the ten hear this and they're upset because they didn't upstage the others Jesus called them unto him verse 25 and said you know he appeals to something that was common knowledge among them you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their great ones exercise authority over them you know from your observation

28:02 of how things operate in the framework of the Roman government which was the power then ordained of God in that whole area of Palestine throughout the Greco-Roman world and he says you have to observe that among the Gentiles those in positions of authority manifest and work out that position in terms of two very vigorous verbs katakurieo to lord it over someone and katexustadzo to play the tyrant Reinecker and Rogers that's how they render it to play the tyrant he says now you know full well that among the nations there are

28:47 this is how they operate the rulers of the Gentiles lord it and their great ones exercise authority or tyrannize those under them but now he says not so shall it be among you now to whom is he speaking he's speaking to the twelve he's not speaking to all disciples in general he is speaking at least directly to James and John but most likely to the twelve because verse 17 says as he was going up to Jerusalem he took the twelve disciples apart so that he's speaking to those who are going

29:31 to have tremendous places of leadership in his church who must in the stewardship of that divinely appointed position as apostles be assertive they must be to be non-assertive is to relinquish their stewardship but he says that assertiveness is not to take its paradigm or have its paradigm in the Gentile leaders no not so shall it be among you but whosoever would become great among you shall be your minister your diakonos your deacon your table servant your table waiter and whosoever would be first among me shall be your doulos your bond slave

30:16 now sometimes diakonos and doulos are used almost as synonyms but certainly not here notice the progression whosoever would be great among you shall be your diakonos your deacon your table waiter whosoever would not be just merely great but first among you shall be your bond now he says this is in direct antithesis to the concept of the world you've observed among the Gentiles those that are in the top places when they are in it in the manner in which they get into it and exercising their authority it is by

30:59 lording it over and being a tyrant to those under them pulling rank but it is not so among you in my kingdom you will be leaders with a radically different set of principles operative in the discharge of that leadership you will and you will direct and you will guide and you will govern from the disposition of a table waiter and of a bond slave and what does that mean he says I'll tell you what it means even as

31:42 even as I am the great example of what I'm teaching you even as the son of man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give to serve and to give his life a ransom for many in the Lord Jesus there is assertive servanthood you call me teacher or master and Lord you say well for so I am you call me Lord Lord and that's who I am yet fully conscious of who he is and the stewardship he has to be assertive in his divinely appointed messianic

32:27 and his divinely role and function he says the manner in which I carry out my task is that of a servant who gives not of someone who lords it down upon and tyrannizes but the son of man who comes not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many now what is given to us in precept here is beautifully epitomized and manifested in our Lord's own example in John 13 in John chapter 13

Assertive Servanthood: Christ's Illustration and Paul's Exemplification

33:04 Jesus is fully conscious of his identity his position and his authority verse 3 Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands that he had this deposit this messianic stewardship all things delivered into his hands and fully conscious knowing that he came forth from God and God goes unto God what does he do he deliberately rises up from supper lays aside his outer garments takes the towel girds himself

33:48 places himself visually and visibly in the posture of the common house servant and then he performs the task that that servant would perform and he performs it for two fundamental reasons first of all to illustrate the nature and method of his saving work towards his own people verses 7 to 11 Jesus answered and said what I do you know not now you shall understand hereafter Peter said you shall never wash my feet Jesus answered him if I do not wash you you have no part with me Simon Peter said to him Lord not my feet only but also my hands and my feet Jesus said to him he that is bathed needs not save to wash his feet and he is clean

34:33 every whit and you are clean but not all for he knew him that should betray him therefore he said you are not all clean Jesus did this first of all to illustrate the very nature of his saving work towards them it is a work in which he in the posture of a servant will bring the cleansing without which they have no part it is in the posture of servant that he washes their feet to illustrate the very nature of his saving work it will be a work effected by Christ cleansing them in a once for all bathing and in an ongoing continual spiritual foot washing and he says if you do not have that from me you have no part with me and he makes it very plain that Judas

35:18 even at that point had no part in that though he had the outward symbol he didn't have the internal reality the others did so Jesus illustrates the very way in which he will accomplish his saving work is in the way of a servant beautiful illustration of Philippians 2 5 and following let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God Jesus knowing the Father had delivered all things into his hands that he came forth from God and goeth to God beautiful parallels takes the form of a what servant being found in fashion as a man humbled himself but you see he did this not only to illustrate the nature and method of his saving work towards them

36:02 but also to demonstrate the spirit and disposition with which they must accomplish their work verses 12 to 17 so when he had washed their feet and taken his garments and sat down again he said unto them do you know what I have done to you you call me teacher and Lord and you say well for so I am if you then if I then the Lord and the teacher have washed your feet you ought to wash one another's feet not in the redemptive sense you see there is a second purpose for what he did I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you verily verily I say to you a servant is not greater than his Lord neither one that is sent greater than him

36:47 greater than he that sent him if you know these things blessed are you if you do them so the second purpose of our Lord was to demonstrate the spirit and disposition which they must have in doing their work and notice verse 16 with its unique application to the apostles a servant is not greater than his Lord neither one that is sent literally an apostle neither a sent one greater than the one who sent him so that though there is certainly a generic application to all believers in the context there is a unique concentrated application even to those who must have all of the holy

37:31 assertiveness of apostles they are to discharge that apostleship in the disposition and spirit manifested by their Lord in which they take the posture of servants one to another they take the posture of willingness to take the role and the function and the humble place of the servant and therefore we bring together those words a disposition of assertive servanthood and surely we find this underscored in 1 Peter 5 and verse 5 commentators are quick to point out that there are overtones of the upper room in the language of Peter and the after speaking directly to the elders

38:16 he then says likewise you younger be subject to the elder yea all of you gird yourselves with humility to serve one another gird yourselves with humility bind yourselves about with the spirit of humility to serve one another why? because of this principle found everywhere in the scriptures God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble and we see in our Lord Jesus according to Ephesians 5 and verse 23 that in his great work of saving his people notice he is head with a view to saving when Paul is writing

39:00 these specific directions to wives for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church being himself the savior of the body he is head with a view to saving and to save he had to stoop to the role of a servant his servanthood does not negate his headship but his headship is manifested in his stooping to save in the posture of a servant and this is exemplified so clearly in the life and ministry of the apostle Paul and we'll look now at just several passages 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 5 against the backdrop

39:45 of the gospel of 2 Corinthians 1 and verse 1 he begins the letter fully conscious of his identity as an apostle and he is being unusually assertive in this second epistle he is taking on those influences both from within and without the church at Corinth that were disrupting the stability the purity the usefulness the God honoring capacity of that church and he's not some laid back dude saying well I don't know I don't know I don't want to give the impression of being heavy handed so I'm just going to pray and fast and trust God will work out this mess no he begins the epistle by saying Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God

40:28 God has put me in this position therefore I have a stewardship I can either be a faithful or an unfaithful steward and you talk about holy assertiveness in both of these epistles now concerning now concerning now concerning next time you gather together kick that dude out purge out the old leaven that's the wicked man out get out this thing I say this to shame you any notion that the Paul was some kind of a soft boy soft handed retiring little catalytic facilitator is sheer nonsense this man was assertive in the sense of his stewardship under God yet this very man is the one who can write

41:12 following the pattern of his Lord 2 Corinthians 4 verse 5 we preach not ourselves but we preach but Christ Jesus as Lord and ourselves as your not the Achanos but as Doulas your bondservants apostle and all of the assertiveness yet he says the internal disposition is that of your bonds for Jesus he's not ambitious just to be great in God's estimation but he's ambitious to be first and Jesus said you want greatness take the role of the great of the Achanos

41:57 table waiter you want to be first take the posture of bondslayer Paul says I aim for that first position and I know that it can only be occupied when one has the disposition of a bondslayer 1 Corinthians 9 in verse 19 and this is not an exhaustive study this is just the specimen of some of the major passages although I was free from all men I brought myself under bondage to all and I was that I might gain the more now certainly he doesn't mean he came into bondage to heretical teaching that would say you must keep the mosaic legislation

42:41 in order to be saved no no Paul made it very plain in Galatians chapter 2 when people were attempting to teach that and wanted to impose the implications of that teaching upon Titus and force him to be circumcised Paul said no we did not give place to them for an hour that the truth of the gospel might come to continue with you he said if Titus makes a visit to the rabbi under the pressure of your Judaizing teaching we forfeit the truth of the gospel and in other settings he says you have been bought with a price be not the slaves of men 1 Corinthians 7.23 what's he saying here in this setting of the whole doctrine of Christian liberty what he's saying is on matters indifferent that would not erode the truth of the gospel

43:24 but would ingratiate me into the affections of people that I might bring the gospel to them I put myself in bondage to every man with his scruples and with his hang-ups if they didn't affect the heart of the gospel and did not in any way undermine the integrity of the gospel my posture was not I'm free in Christ from this that and the other I'm free not to do this I'm free to do this no he said in the posture of a servant I brought myself into bondage to every man's scruples every man's hang-ups in so far as in so doing I might gain their affection and their confidence that I might bring the gospel to them without impediment

44:08 that's the heart of an assertive servant I brought myself not I let people bring me into bondage this is voluntary personal Paul is the actor in this not the one acted upon I brought myself under bondage to all in order that I might gain the more and then in 2nd Corinthians 10 8 and following another very powerful passage in the Pauline Corpus 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 8 for though I should glory somewhat abundantly concerning our authority which the Lord gave

44:53 for building up and not for casting you down I shall not be put to shame that I may not seem as if I would terrify you by my letters for his letters they say are weighty and strong but his bodily presence is weak and weak and his speech of no account let such a one reckon this that what we are in word by letters when we are absent we are also indeed when we are present now you see here Paul is speaking again very conscious that he has a divine stewardship of apostolic authority he knows that the Lord has given this authority he has given it to build men up and not to tear them down and that in the exercise of that authority

45:37 he must regulate the manner of that exercise in a way that is commensurate with the situation that he is dealing with and so when we hear him say I brought myself under bondage to all we take the posture of being bond slaves to you for Christ's sake that does not mean that he became a passive whimpering simpering man who could be pushed about by everyone's whims no he never lost the consciousness of his divinely appointed sphere of stewardship as an apostle and the authority given to him by Christ in that apostolic position and then in 1 Peter 5

46:22 and verse 3 I bring in this text from Peter to illustrate what we've been seeking to underscore you remember we looked at this last week neither is lording it over the charge allotted to you but making yourself examples to the flock but all of this subsumed under verse 2 shepherding the flock of God which can only be done by sanctified assertiveness but it is assertiveness that does not have and here's our use of the same word katakurieo does not have the Gentile like manner or style of administering that oversight but one in which

47:07 by the grace of God you take Christ the chief shepherd as your pattern and you seek to make yourself examples to the flock and then the last passage Philippians 2 verses 20 and 21 Philippians 2 verses 20 and 21 one of the most searching passages again in all of the Pauline literature he indicates that he hopes to send Timothy shortly to the Philippians in order that he might have a fresh updated report of how they are doing Paul there in prison is anxious about their state as they are anxious about his then he tells them

47:52 why he's sending Timothy he said I'm sending Timothy not because he's the only one available but he says I have no man like minded who will care genuinely for your state for they all seek their own not the things of Jesus Christ to me it's one of the most shocking grieving passages in all that Paul has written I'm sending Timothy and the reason I'm sending him I don't have any other man available let's hope the best when we read the text not that there was no other man for he speaks in this very epistle of another noble servant

48:36 of God who was willing to risk his life Epaphroditus he speaks in other epistles of men who shared in his spirit but that there should only be one man at hand that of whom he could say he will naturally genuinely care for your state they all seek their own they are using their position of ministerial office and influence with self-serving ends rather than a genuine concern for the well-being of those over whom they are placed and to whom they will minister well brethren if there is anything anything that we need to pray that God will work in us by the power of the Holy Spirit it is this disposition

49:20 of assertive servitude so that in a very real sense we should be a constant enigma certainly to worldlings and to unspiritually minded people within our own influence we ought to manifest such a certain unshakable commitment to our understanding of our God-given job description that viewed from one perspective we are the most intransigent in transit full-headed stubborn unyielding creatures on the face of the earth yet looking at the same man from another perspective we are the most malleable pliable easy pushovers that they ever met willing to yield

50:04 on matters that do not involve compromise of truth but involve willingness to become a bond slave to others for the sake of Christ bowing to scruples that don't affect the truth of the gospel willingness to bend to yield to take the place of the towel about our waist doing the servant's task sitting as I had to sit this last week with an immature mixed up emotionally unstable young man young enough almost not just almost young enough to be just about my grandson to have him get in my face and be my instructor

50:48 on some of the most elementary things left to myself I'd have slapped him on the mouth and say go home and have your mama teach you some manners but God helped me to put the towel on and wash his feet and patiently take verbal personal abuse until after 15 minutes I could win his conscience and be able to minister to him past your name that's what it means in the concrete that someone who's not seen his 21st birthday talk to a 63 year old man like a man like he was his father instructing him if you haven't got this you won't have it

51:31 you'll point it to the door and say get out of here before I belt you if you have any manhood in you but you have to take the posture of servitude you're out to win this man you see what under God he can become through the grace of Christ I hope the time will come when he'll be mature enough to look back on that session and come and say how in the world can I be able to do that I can't I did it was not I but Christ that lives in me and then be able to tell what I would have done apart from the grace of Christ so this is real brother you face it all the time what's my posture I must lead I must be assertive I must not be passive

Disposition of Meekness with Lowliness and Gentleness: Christ's Example

52:16 and just a catalytic element occasionally to throw my opinion into the pool of congregational consensus no that's not the leadership to which I'm called but it must be from the disposition of servitude that God has placed me here to lead with the spirit and the disposition of a servant of Christ then oh my our hour is gone well we'll break we'll break here and then hopefully we'll cover these remaining three in the next 45 minutes let's previous hour focusing on that which I have attempted to describe and explain as a disposition of assertive servanthood

53:01 and now we move on to the second element of the disposition that I've described as one of meekness with the attendance of lowliness and gentleness now in Matthew 11 25 and following we have our Lord speaking in a very unique way rarely apart from this passage you find the Lord Jesus speaking about his own internal disposition have him speak of his grief his sorrow but here he speaks of his own internal disposition again in the context where he's conscious of the dignity and the stewardship of his messianic identity

53:45 at that season Jesus answered parallel passage in Luke says he exalted or rejoiced in spirit and said I thank thee oh Father Lord of heaven and earth that you did hide these things from the wise and understanding and did reveal them unto babes yea Father for so it was well pleasing in your sight all things have been delivered unto me of my Father all things delivered unto me I'm conscious of my position no one knows the Son save the Father neither does any know the Father save the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him so that in the full consciousness of his identity of his stewardship in messianic role and function

54:29 he then gives forth this marvelous invitation 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 then as an incentive to comply with that gracious invitation he says in coming to me and in taking my yoke upon you putting yourself in the posture of one prepared to learn from me this is the incentive I am meek and lowly in heart this is the disposition with which I will take on this role of being your governor and ruler take my yoke upon you your instructor your master you will find me

55:13 to be meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest unto your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light as our Lord summons men to attachment to himself to take on a yoke he discloses the disposition of his heart by which he will govern and teach them and teach them and he ties together meekness and lowliness and there is a wonderful conjunction of those two things in conjunction with our Lord as we see him riding into Jerusalem in what we commonly call his triumphal entry in Matthew 21 and verse 5 tell ye the daughter of Zion behold

55:58 your king comes unto you meek and riding upon you upon an ass your king comes the one who has the right and power and stewardship of rule but he comes in a disposition of meekness manifested in his riding upon an ass and upon the colt the foal of an ass now we see meekness joined in several contexts to lowliness on the one hand and gentleness on the other Ephesians 4 in verse 2 where Paul says to the people to the people to the people to the people to the people to the people to the people to the people Paul puts forth the appeal that the Ephesians make conscious endeavor to keep the unity

56:42 of the spirit with all lowliness and meekness with long suffering forbearing one another in love here meekness joined to lowliness on the one hand and then over in 2nd Timothy 2 24 and 25 where Paul is admonishing Timothy not to be argued for argumentative and combative in the discharge of his unpleasant task in ministerial responsibility of dealing with those who dabble in error the Lord's servant must not strive but be gentle toward all apt to teach forbearing in meekness

57:25 correcting them that oppose themselves here you have the Lord's servant being gentle coupled with the disposition of meekness and then in 2nd Corinthians 10 in verse 1 where the apostle joins these two I beseech you by the meekness and the gentleness of Christ I've tried to collate these and describe this element of the disposition as meekness with the attendance of lowliness on the one hand and gentleness on the other now what can we say by way of conclusion well this is not meant to be an exhaustive word study of these

Meekness, Lowliness, and Gentleness: Definitions and Paul's Example

58:10 three words but I trust it's accurate in as far as we go with it meekness is the disposition characterized by the absence of carnal self-assertiveness with its self-will toward God and its ill-will toward man meekness is the disposition characterized by an absence and right in the word carnal self-assertiveness and carnal self-assertiveness will be manifested when we choose our way against God's way and we have ill-will in our hearts toward our fellow men

58:54 it seems to be the product of humility in the light of the Beatitudes Matthew 5 verses 3 to 5 it does not preclude boldness since Moses is called a man meek above all others of the world on the face of the earth and the two words translated meekness in our English Bibles are praus and prafutes I've written them on the board I hope you can decipher them Matthew 11 29 there's the adjective and then the other usages are primarily the noun prafutes 1 Corinthians 4 21 the text that I've listed here

59:38 10 1 Galatians 6 1 2 Timothy 2 25 and Titus 3 and verse 2 so meekness is that disposition characterized by an absence of carnal self-assertiveness that would break out in defiance of God's revealed will and in ill will toward our fellow men lowliness is the absence of arrogance and pride of mind and of spirit lowliness is the absence of arrogance and pride of mind and spirit gentleness is the absence of harshness and of insensitivity so when we put them together they form that aspect

60:23 of dispositional complex so essential to real shepherding of God's people in their real circumstance as I was driving over this morning I was thinking of this concept this truth that in our Lord Jesus all the perfections of the divine attributes exist from all eternity but there are certain aspects of those attributes that come to a heightened expression in our Lord Jesus ministering in our sinful condition ministering in a condition where pity and patience and long suffering and all of these other attributes come to a heightened expression and it is those things that must constitute

61:08 the disposition of the under-shepherd shepherding in the midst of a fallen world shepherding people who will manifest elements of residual sinfulness that will need particular heightened expressions of these graces of lowliness meekness and gentleness and let's look at several passages where we see this exemplified in the apostle Acts 20 and verse 19 it's always fascinated me that the first thing Paul says in reviewing his ministry among the Ephesians focuses on this aspect of the disposition of a true under-shepherd you yourselves

61:52 know from the first day that I set foot in Asia after what manner I was with you all the time serving the Lord with all lowliness of mind there we have a word that in secular literature and in the pagan world was never used in a commendatory way it always had a pejorative negative connotation to be of lowly mind was something to be despised but what was despised by the world became a cardinal virtue among the people of God and the apostle said this marked from the first day I set foot in Asia I was with

62:37 you serving the Lord with lowliness of mind now was there assertiveness just read the account of the apostle's life and some of the bold endeavors that he undertook while at Ephesus and yet the internal disposition was a disposition of meekness with its attendance of lowliness and of gentleness 2 Corinthians 10.1 we looked at earlier I beseech you he says I entreat you by the meekness and the gentleness of Christ and then I've also listed I think in this conjunction yes Hebrews 5 and verse 2 and I've skipped over in the notes with you I'm sorry

63:21 and I should have stuck more closely to the newly printed notes where I rearranged some of that material under the matter of lowliness the word used in a negative way in the secular world but used to describe humility in the New Testament the three texts Philippians 2 3 Colossians 3 12 and 1 Peter 5 and verse 5 then we come to this matter of gentleness the absence of harshness and insensitivity Hebrews 5 2 one of the marks of the priest the reason he was taken from among men though we don't have the same family of words used the concept is here he is taken from among men

64:06 for this purpose that he can bear gently with the ignorant in erring for that he himself is compassed with infirmity a passage that Brother Lyle dealt with in one of the messages I believe last year so he is here in this element of pastoral ministry that has priestly overtones there must be this capacity to bear gently with the ignorant and with the erring and then you have a use you have a textual variant as some of you are aware but the use of the gentleness of a nursing mother in 1 Thessalonians 2 and verse 7 the use of the word apios well here again when we think of the problems the disappointments

64:50 amongst God's people the flack that we will receive from those that we seek to minister to how essential are these qualities think of Moses meek above all men upon the face of the earth every time the people of God get into trouble they blame Moses blame him for everything and remember it was in this very area that Moses fell toward the end of his life and I never understood that until I got to be an old man or a much older man I said why why wouldn't you expect all of his graces to be their rightest in his old age but in the very area of meekness he failed ok you rebels

65:35 you want water whack whack God says you don't go into promised land for that and so we need to cry to God that these dispositions this disposition of meekness with its attendance of lowliness and gentleness be continually inwrought in us by the enablement of the spirit of God without it we will not be like our savior without it we will not fulfill the clear injunctions given to us in scripture with respect to the manner in which we are to deal even with the difficult and the recalcitrant and I would urge you to give prayerful consideration to each of those texts and make them your lifetime companion and pray in that God will give you

66:19 that grace and there will be times as I indicated when you will actually sit there in a situation where you will be lifting up your heart to God saying Lord baptize my spirit with meekness with gentleness and lowliness of heart without it I'm going to be rock striking I'm going to say I've had it enough is enough in any language as my mother used to say but when did God say to you enough is enough when God ceases in Christ to be anything other than patient and meek and lowly and gentleness dealing with you then you have warrant to be something less than that in your dealings with his people well then we hurry on now because I do want to cover

Disposition of Vulnerable Compassion: Christ's and Paul's Examples

67:03 these remaining two a disposition of what I have called vulnerable compassion or compassionate vulnerability and I'm not sure which is the better term so I put both of them there a disposition of vulnerable compassion if we are to be like our Lord Jesus in our shepherding of his people entrusted to our care then surely we must not only have a disposition of asserted servanthood of meekness and gentleness but also of vulnerable compassion here in Matthew 9 familiar words to us I'm sure that when Jesus beholds the multitudes when he saw them when he actually

67:48 let his eyes be an inlet to his soul of their condition he was at that point upon seeing them and perceiving their true condition moved and moved with compassion and you know that that's one of those untranslatable Greek words how do we translate it it has so much that is untranslatable but this moving with compassion is not a surface emotion it is not an undisturbing emotion it is something that shakes and disturbs and brings into tumult the whole inner being he was moved with compassion and there was a vulnerability our Lord was willing to look at the multitudes and not only look at them to see them

68:32 to register by means of the of the visual capacity that there's a bunch of people out there but to truly see their condition because he goes on to say because they were distressed and scattered as sheep not having a shepherd that wasn't their external condition that was their true spiritual condition it wasn't as though someone was going around scattering them with an Uzi no outwardly they seem to be fairly well off but he saw their true condition under the tyrannizing teaching of the scribes and the Pharisees and as he sees them in that true condition distressed and scattered as sheep not having a shepherd you see the shepherding

69:17 motif comes into this vulnerable compassion of our Lord Jesus in Mark 1 in verse 41 here in the presence of very strong physical need in the person of this leper there came to him a leper beseeching him and kneeling down to him and saying if you will you can make me clean and doesn't say and being reminded of his messianic mission and the necessity to validate it by healing the sick Jesus stretched forth his hand no wherever that was it was in the background what is in the foreground is being moved with compassion our Lord opened up his whole inner being

70:01 to the tragedy of the effect of sin in terms of this physical malady in this man and moved with compassion he stretched forth his hand this was not some automatic response of messianic function and identity there was a present internal vulnerability to human need there was vulnerable compassion Luke 7 in verse 13 so similar description of our Lord in the presence of real need here it is the widow who has lost her only child her son verse 13 and when the Lord saw her he had

70:46 compassion on her he opened up his own heart to feel what she felt to enter in to that present tragedy and said to her do not weep and he came near and touched the beer and the bearers stood still and he raises this young lad from the dead but here is that vulnerable compassion and we see it in the apostle in Acts chapter 20 again when he reviews his years of ministry among the Ephesians he could say along with the lowliness of mind in verse 19 that it was also with tears with tears with tears and then in verse 31

71:30 wherefore watch remembering by the space of three years I cease not to admonish every one night and day with tears it was a vulnerability a willingness to so take to heart the reality of the spiritual condition amongst the lost and amongst the people of God as well that his inner being felt the impression and opened up his tear ducts not in the forced not in the forced mindset of the consummate actor but in the tender sensitivity of a true shepherd of souls and then in one of the most moving expressions of this vulnerable compassion 2 Corinthians chapter 6

72:13 in the midst of seeking to deal with the manifold problems in the church at Corinth the attacks upon his own person the realization that these false teachers had been so effective that they had pushed Paul out of the deep affections of many of the Corinthians and then in verse 11 he says our mouth is open unto you all Corinthians our heart is enlarged you are not straightened you are not compressed in us but you are straightened in your own affections now for a recompense in like kind I speak as unto my children be ye also enlarged do you catch something of the pathos our mouth is open to you all Corinthians and that is

72:58 but an echo and a revelation of the condition of our hearts our heart is enlarged now what do we normally do with people that hurt us again and again and again what's our natural tendency to close our hearts to them and say no way you're going to get in there and stab me again we want to put up a protective wall around the heart put some plate glass put some iron let our hearts be shriveled but no Paul under God was able to say to these Corinthians as much as you grieve me and pain me my heart is not only maintaining its present and previous measure of love to you it's enlarged it's been

73:43 stretched even in the face of all of these issues you are not constricted in us but you are constricted in your own affection this is what we're talking about tempting to talk about talk around when we talk about this matter of vulnerable compassion and then in 2nd Corinthians I'm sorry in yes 2nd Corinthians 7 in verse 3 another powerful expression of this when he's asking them to open their hearts to him indicates that there was no just cause for them to shut up their hearts towards him and his companions we wronged no man we corrupted

74:27 no man we took advantage of no man I say it not to condemn you for I've said before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together you are in our hearts and that means there's vulnerability and so whether we call it compassionate vulnerability or vulnerable compassion it's a disposition that is determined that one's affection toward those for whom we have God given responsibility will not be regulated by the present way in which they relate to us that's the crux of the issue we maintain the vulnerability and without it there will be no

75:11 experiential awareness felt compassion toward those to whom we minister and I've listed Romans 12 and verse 15 again underscoring the principle that we must enter in with the state of others rejoice with them that rejoice weep with them that weep there's the vulnerability because in rejoicing with those who rejoice and in drawing near and making their cause of rejoicing yours you are being vulnerable because those are the very people that can turn around and hurt you and though you may not be weeping with them you may be weeping because of them and when we are vulnerable

Disposition of Self-Giving Love: Christ's Example

75:56 enough to weep with those who weep we are vulnerable to have those very people cause us to weep as they would turn against us as they would disappoint us as they would grieve us as we seek to shepherd them but then finally we for today there must be a disposition of self giving love and here the scriptural materials are so profuse that I just wondered what ones I could select and which ones to pass over but I've listed for you some of the major texts that point again to our Lord Jesus and his disposition of self giving love John 10 I've chosen that because it's in the shepherd motif where our

76:41 Lord Jesus describes himself as the good shepherd of his own and he says in verses 11 and 12 the thief comes not but that he may steal verse 10 I'm come that they may have life I am the good shepherd the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep he that is a hireling and not a shepherd whose own the sheep are not beholds the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees and the wolf snatches them and scatters them he flees because he's a hire and does not care for the sheep the sheep exist only as a means of livelihood for the hire that's all they are a commodity that he might get a commodity called his

77:25 shekels that's all he's the hireling he's hired to do a job the sheep are part of his job he says the shepherd sustains a totally different relationship the sheep are his life I'm the good shepherd the good shepherd's ready to exchange life for their life and therefore when the wolf comes the true shepherd does not leave why because he's bound to them in a disposition of self giving love verse 15 as the father knows me and I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep and other sheep I have that are not of this fold them also I must bring and they shall hear my voice and they shall become one flock one shepherd therefore doth the father love me because

78:10 I lay down my life that I may take it again and if the other voice by which Jesus calls the sheep are his appointed sent ones then surely he sends out those to represent his message who also reflect his disposition what a contradiction to preach a message of a good shepherd who lays down his life out of the mouth of one who has something less than the disposition of self giving love who is self sparing and self , serving and self seeking rather than self sacrificing and then the clear emphasis of Ephesians 5.25 Christ loved

Self-Giving Love: Paul's Exemplification and the Spirit's Work

78:54 the church and did not give something external to himself or something of himself but gave himself Christ loved the church and gave himself up for it and though we do not give up ourselves for the church in terms of redemptive accomplishment we do give up ourselves to the church for her salvation and perfection in terms of self abnegation self denial self giving love 1 Thessalonians 2 and verse 8 another very moving statement of the apostles internal disposition after

79:39 underscoring his gentleness he says being affectionately desirous of you we were well pleased not we reluctantly as a matter of inescapable principle but we were well pleased to impart to you not the gospel of God only but also our own souls because you were become dear to us you see not only was the message dear to Paul but those to whom he delivered the message had become dear to him and he says we were well pleased not only to deliver the message but our very soul our very life this disposition of self giving love and one of the most moving expressions of it the next

80:24 text that I've listed the second Corinthians passage what do you do when you continue to love and there is no love in return well Paul tells us what he did verse 14 of second Corinthians 12 this is the third time I'm ready to come to you in the light of his previous treatment in the light of what he's received of news of how they regard him and how they've treated him many of them surely the apostle might find some other field that was more fruitful in terms of satisfactory returns but he said this is the third time I'm ready to come to you and I'll not be a burden to you for I seek not yours but you for the children ought not to lay up for the parents but the parents for the children notice again

81:08 not I will most principally or I will out of dogged determination to do my duty no but I will most gladly I will most gladly I will most gladly spend and then be spent you have an intensified use of the verb you've got a prefix I will most gladly spend and be spent out or utterly spent for your souls if I love you more abundantly am I loved the less but be it so I did not myself burden you see what he's saying my self-giving love is not determined by whether or not it's reciprocated

81:52 most gladly will I spend and be spent out for your sake if I love you more abundantly am I loved the less he's going to continue by the grace of God to pursue that course of self-giving love Philippians 2 and verse 17 Philippians 2 and verse 17 where again the apostle speaks in language that I frankly confess Lord if I can know something of this before I die how grateful I'd be and if I'm offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith I joy and rejoice with you all not I'm prepared to be poured out in self-giving love

82:36 if principle demands it he said I rejoice if I can for the advancement of your faith be offered up as a sacrifice and then in Colossians 1 in verse 24 now I rejoice here again you see brethren this this flesh will never rise to this level it's one thing in principle submission to God to take your lumps and to go in the path of suffering but to say I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake which is the church

83:20 what's it mean well we know what it doesn't mean Paul is not saying that there's something I must do in my ministerial service that will make up some inadequacy in the once for all redemptive accomplishment of the work of Christ that would negate everything scripture teaches but having said what it doesn't mean it's obvious that Paul does regard there are some afflictions of Christ that are marked out to be accomplished and experienced in his flesh for the sake of his church and he says I rejoice in my sufferings that are filling up that measure that is allocated to me

84:04 and there's no way you're going to faithfully serve Christ without having a measure allocated by a sovereign God of your fellowship in the sufferings of Christ for his body sake the church in Paul's case stripes imprisonment beatings stone that may never come to us the brethren just the sufferings would come from being a true shepherd will give you some experiential acquaintance with this it will cause you to say Lord only you can make me rejoice only you can make me rejoice in the sufferings for his sake that come in the path of faithfully administering that stewardship entrusted to you for the sake

84:48 of his church and only a disposition of self-giving love will make you to be able to rejoice in that I rejoice in my sufferings for yours I don't go home and grouse to my wife and say but I'm not going to move my post and I'm not going to be budged from my place because of these that break my heart I'll stoically stay it out close it I rejoice and what a conundrum he must be must have been to those who figured let's stick him some more let's stick him some more stick him some more and all they do is cause his rejoicing to me brethren who's sufficient for these things and that's why I've listed in the final two texts Galatians 5.22

85:33 the fruit of the spirit is and only as the spirit of God imparts to us and subdues our hearts that the very love that motivated our savior are we going to be enabled to have a disposition of self-giving love and how does the spirit of God impart that to us well in answer to prayer yes but particularly in the light of 2 Corinthians 3 and verse 18 the spirit of God works these things in us as we contemplate in loving reflection and in biblically framed meditation the very person of our Lord himself 2 Corinthians 3.18 but we all with unveiled face beholding

86:17 as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are transformed beholding we are transformed into the same image from glory to glory even as from the Lord the spirit in my latter years I have found myself more and more inclined wherever I'm reading in my Bible to make sure I expose myself to the whole counsel of God I'm making one of my baseline non-negotiable elements of devotional reading somewhere in the Gospels that I might have my eyes fixed upon my Savior in the only place I'm going to see Him until I see Him face to face and as I'm doing that several of my prayers are one of those

87:01 several prayers is that in so doing this very reality might be affected in me even beneath the level of consciousness not only in the times when I see our Lord reacting in a certain way and say oh Lord I'm so unlike that help me to be like that that's part of how it operates but there's an operation of this even beneath the level of our consciousness where we're just so taken up with what we see that we're not even thinking about ourselves and the Spirit of God is affecting an internal change by degrees that at His second coming what does John say we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is and the moment we have that face to face sight of Him the work is going to be complete and we'll be totally conformed to His image now He's doing it one stage of glory to another by the

87:46 secret inward the powerful operations of the Holy Spirit and that's why I've taken as my selected principle that Christ Himself must be our fundamental pattern as we think of this whole issue of the disposition with which we ought to seek to accomplish and carry out the task of the oversight of His people God willing next week we'll look at at least another three and I'm toying with possibly two more that as I've been reflecting on this may legitimately come into this but we'll have at least three and possibly five elements that form part of the vital dispositional complex that ought to mark us in

Concluding Exhortations and Quotes from Owen and Baxter

88:31 this task now I want to give you a couple of quotes from some of the masters of the past with which to close our lecture this morning when we think of the matter of vulnerable compassion listen to Owen's statement again volume 16 page 87 he's listing the things that ought to mark a true shepherd of God's people and number seven is this a compassionate suffering with all the members of the church in all their trials and troubles whether internal or external belongs unto them in the discharge of their office nor is there anything that renders them more like unto Jesus Christ whom to represent

89:15 unto the church is their principal duty what is your principal duty in mind as pastors it is to represent Christ unto the church not only by what we say but by what we are and how we relate to them the view and consideration by faith of the glory of Christ in his compassion with his suffering members is the principal string of consolation unto the church in all of its distresses and the same spirit the same mind herein ought according to their measure to be in all that have the pastoral office committed to them so the apostle expressed it in himself who is weak and I am not weak

90:00 who is offended and I burn not 2nd Corinthians 11 29 and unless this compassion and goodness does run through the discharge of their whole office men cannot be said to be evangelical shepherds nor the sheep said in any sense to be their own for those who pretend unto the pastoral office to live it may be in wealth and pleasure regardless of the sufferings and temptations of their flock or the poor of it or related unto such churches as wherein it is impossible that they should so much as be acquainted with the state of the greatest part of them is not answerable unto the institution of their office nor to the design of Christ therein and then Baxter

90:45 as he addresses the matter of this disposition of self giving love he writes on page 117 in the reform pastor the whole of our ministry must be carried on in tender love to our people we must let them see that nothing pleases us but what profits them and what does them good does us good and nothing troubles us more than their hurt we must feel to our people as a father toward his children yea the tenderest love of a mother must not surpass ours we must even travel in birth till Christ be formed in them they should see that we care for no outward thing neither wealth nor liberty

91:29 nor honor nor life in comparison with their salvation but could even be content with Moses to have our names blotted out of the book of life to be removed from the number of the living rather than that they should not be found in the lamb's book of life thus should we as John said be ready to lay down our lives for the brethren and with Paul count not our lives dear to us so that we may finish our course with joy and the ministry we've received of the Lord Jesus this is a profound statement now brethren when the people see that you unfeignedly love them they will hear anything and bear anything from you and isn't that true when you're convinced a man really loves you

92:14 listen to what Baxter goes on to say we ourselves will take all things well from one we know that entirely love us we'll put up with a blow that is given us in love sooner than with an angry word that is spoken to us in malice or in anger most men judge of the counsel as they judge of the affection of him that gives it at least so far as to give it a fair hearing oh therefore see that you feel a tender love to your people in your breasts let them perceive it in your speeches and see it in your conduct let them see that you spend and are spent for their sake and all that you do is for them and not for any private ends

92:59 isn't it true if you're convinced a man loves you it's amazing what you take from him but if you have reason to suspect that someone does not love you or has ill will toward you you're ready to pounce on even a word that is spoken with the wrong look in the left eyebrow well our people are that way and one of the joys of a lengthy pastor is that as by the grace of God you weep with your people you suffer with them you struggle with them over their besetting sins you have a deeper and more firmly entrenched place in their affections then your ability under God to influence them for good and prepare them for heaven increases exponentially because they open their hearts more and more to you the true people of God

93:43 and some of them will even be those who for a while restrict their hearts but when they saw you continuing to relate to them in the vulnerability of true compassion and self giving love and under God they have won back into the place of affection they will become some of those who will love you with a love that's almost embarrassing because they remember how you loved them when they were so unlucky they will become those who will become your staunchest defenders when anyone starts to slander you you won't have to waste your breath to try to defend yourself they'll come to your defense and it's a temporary and even present reward that comes from a true flock of God's people when by the grace of God you relate to them in your work of oversight

94:27 with these elements of the disposition so perfectly and beautifully exemplified in our Lord Jesus well let's pray ask God to help us our Father we confess in your presence that left to ourselves these things we've considered today will be nothing but noble ideals to be admired for