The Disposition of Biblical Oversight, Part 1

Introduction: The Task of Oversight in its Disposition

0:02 We come today to the second consideration of the biblical description of the task of effective pastoral oversight. And if you consult your abstract, you will see precisely where we are in the overall structure of the course, Part 2, Unit 1, and last week we considered the biblical description of the task in its essence, and there we saw that it is to be understood in terms of shepherding the flock, caring for the household of God, and exercising rule and government over the people of God.

0:43 Now today we proceed to Roman numeral number 2, the biblical description of the task in its disposition. So let us then proceed immediately to a careful examination of this vital, subject, the biblical description of the task of oversight in its disposition. Now there are three introductory concerns to be addressed as we approach the subject. First of all, a word of definition, a word of explanation, and then thirdly, a confession of my own frustration.

Defining 'Disposition' and Explaining the Selection Principle

1:23 All right? First of all then, a word of definition. The word disposition. Disposition means the normal or the prevailing aspect of a man's nature, an essential quality of one's nature.

1:40 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.

2:11 Alas, I hope we never have it said of us, that man's got an irritable disposition. What we're saying is that a prevailing characteristic of that man's spirit is irritability. 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. So much then for definition, now I want to give a word of explanation with reference to my selected principle.

2:55 What principle has regulated my selection of those specific aspects of the disposition that ought to characterize the under-shepherd? Well, among the many graces and character traits which ought to be present in effective pastoral oversight, the standard or principle of selection which I have chosen to use is that of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ as the perfect pattern and exemplar of this disposition that we ought to possess,

3:36 and secondarily, taking the Apostle Paul and others insofar as they mirror and illustrate those graces in Christ. So, as to the explanation of my selected principle, it is to be Christ as our perfect pattern, Paul as a bona fide model and pattern of the disposition, and others insofar as they reflect the pattern of Christ. Now, why have I chosen this approach? Well, for two reasons.

4:15 Number one, because of Christ's specific identity as the chief shepherd and overseer or bishop of our souls. I have chosen this selected principle because of Christ's specific identity as the chief shepherd and the overseer or bishop of our souls. In the 1 Peter 5 section, where Peter is addressing elders, he speaks of the Lord Jesus in this way, and when the chief shepherd, one word in the Greek, the archangel,

4:58 when the chief shepherd shall appear. Now, in the context in which he's been exhorting elders to shepherd the flock of God, it is evident that he wants us to make a connection between the shepherd's lowercase s and the shepherd's capital S, even our Lord Jesus Christ. In Hebrews 13, 20, he is called the shepherd of the sheep, the great one. The shepherd of the sheep, the great one.

5:41 We are shepherds of the sheep, but we are in many ways insignificant ones. We are the little ones, the lesser ones, and there is but one great shepherd of the sheep, even our Lord Jesus. And therefore, as the chief shepherd, he exemplifies all that shepherding is and ought to be. And furthermore, in 1 Peter 2, he is called not only the shepherd, but he is also called the bishop.

6:20 For you were going astray, but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop. The poimen and the episkopos. Now surely, in the light of last week's exegetical study, you don't need to be a genius to see that these things brought into close conjunction with reference to our Lord Jesus are precisely the two concepts brought in close conjunction when dealing with the work of an elder in Acts. Acts 20 and in Titus chapter 1.

7:03 Well, since then, he is the pattern in sanctification for all his people in general. How much more ought he to be our pattern in the specific dimensions of shepherd and of bishop? If 1 John 2 sits, he that saith he abideth in him ought to walk as he walked, and 1 Peter 2, he hath left us an example that we should follow his steps, if those texts are true generically for all the people of God concerning the broad scope of Christian character, grace, and conduct, then I say how much more

7:46 when he is designated as shepherd and bishop is he to be the pattern for what we are to be as under-shepherds, and as little bishops, overseers of the people of God. So then, for this reason, first of all, I believe this approach is a valid one, is a safe one. I would go so far as to say such an approach is mandated implicitly by the text that I have quoted. However, there's a second reason for this selective pronouncement.

8:30 And that is the principle which includes not only Christ, but the Apostle Paul and others who mirror Christ. And that is the explicit command to follow and imitate those who follow and imitate Christ. So in explaining and giving a rationale for this selective principle, I have two reasons. Christ's identity as shepherd and bishop, and then because of the explicit command to follow and imitate those who follow and imitate Christ.

Biblical Mandate to Imitate Christ and His Followers

9:08 In 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 14, the Apostle says, I write not these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. Here is Paul in an intensely pastoral context. For though you have ten thousands, two thousand tutors in Christ, yet have you not many fathers, for in Christ Jesus, I begat you through the gospel. I beseech you, therefore, the imitators of me.

9:50 I am your spiritual father, and as such I want you consciously to imitate me. And then the explicit directive of chapter 11, in verse 1, in 1 Corinthians, be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ. And therefore it is proper that we should look to the Apostle Paul as one worthy to be imitated. Furthermore, two texts in the book of Philippians, and I take the time to go over these, brethren, not for filler, but because in our day,

10:33 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.

11:10 So there the concept of following the pattern of the Apostle is even extended to others who manifest conformity to that apostolic standard. And then in chapter 4 and verse 9, a text which ought to be one of the 20 or 30 texts that we as the servants of God, that we as the servants of God, that we as the servants of God, that we as the servants of God, that we as the servants of God, that we as the servants of God, that we as the servants of God, that we as the servants of Christ, constantly run by the eyes of the soul and set before our consciences the things which you both learned and received and heard and saw in me. These things do,

11:55 and the God of peace shall be with you. Paul, within the framework of biblical theology, biblical pedagogy, not only taught, articulated divine truth, but he modeled that truth. It is enough that the disciple not merely think as his master, but be as his master. That's biblical pedagogy.

12:22 Believe what I teach and you'll become what I am.

12:27 And Paul was very conscious of that for he learned it from his master. And then the final text, 2 Thessalonians 3 and verse 9, descending to this very practical matter of industriousness in work, Paul could say in verse 9, verses 8 and 9, neither did we eat bread for naught at any man's hand, but in labor and travail, working night and day, that we might not burden any one of you, not because we have not the right, but to make ourselves an example unto you, that you should imitate us. He says, my action was calculated

13:12 to be exemplary in this specific area. And he says, in the light of that, you should not only heed my entreaties as they come in the form of words, but should follow my example. So, because of these two basic, reasons, I am taking as my selective principle Christ's specific identity as chief shepherd and overseer and our responsibility to imitate him and then the explicit command to follow and imitate

13:54 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

14:39 the good shepherd whose the sheep are, the shepherd and bishop of our souls, the chief shepherd did design in the undertaking and exercise of his pastoral office to give a type and example unto all those who are 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. That's strong language, but I believe every word of it

15:23 is sound biblical judgment. If there be not a conformity unto him herein, that is, in the gifts and graces of the pastoral office, no man can assure his own conscience or the church of God that he is or can be lawfully called unto this office. Thus, Dr. Lowen.

Confession of Frustration and Selective Approach

15:51 Then, by way of introduction, let me tell you what I feel by way of frustration. Give a word of definition, a word of explanation concerning my selective principle, now my confession of frustration. It is impossible to be exhaustive in dealing with this subject of the disposition which must characterize the task of oversight and yet do justice to the remainder of the course. There's a sense in which we could spend, I believe, without banging anything thin at the edges, spend the rest of the semester simply expounding passages in which something of the pastoral disposition

16:35 of the Lord Jesus the Apostle Paul and other exemplary ministers are set forth just in the New Testament.

16:45 Now, in the light of the fact that I can't do that, I have had to be selective. And in being selective, my fear is that I have been either arbitrarily or prejudicially selective.

17:01 I fear that. Now, my comfort and that which allays my fear is that I have not been selective in a vacuum. I have tried to have the quality control of the great masters like Owen and others at my shoulder, noticing in my reading whenever anyone has addressed the subject what particular graces are most frequently highlighted and expounded. And therefore, I feel some sense of comfort that I have not been arbitrary in my selection, but at the same time since all of us has a predisposition to see certain things

17:45 more readily than others, there may be some spiritual prejudice influencing me and therefore all I can ask you to do is in your own experience to have your eyes constantly alert in your reading of the Word of God to see what appears in your reading to be any kind of a major deficiency in what I set before you as the six leading elements of the disposition for the work of oversight required by the Scriptures and peculiarly highlighted in the ministry of our Lord Jesus, the Apostle Paul,

Element 1: A Disposition of Assertive Servanthood

18:30 and others who like him followed Christ. All right, with those three introductory concerns behind us, now we come to the specific elements of the disposition required. And I'll take probably the first two or three and then we'll, I'll go from the clock, I would say probably the first two and then break, we'll see how we do. First of all and fundamental to all others, the disposition required for the work of oversight is what I am calling a disposition of assertive servanthood.

19:08 A disposition of assertive servanthood. A disposition of assertive servanthood.

19:19 Now let me explain what I mean by that terminology. Our Lord in the full bloom of his manhood and his official ministry was fully conscious of his God-ordained position as the leader of his people. Our Lord had no doubts as to his identity with reference to his people and himself. For example, in Luke chapter 6 verses 46 and 47 he says, And why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

20:04 Everyone who comes unto me and hears my word and does them I will show you to whom he is like. And then he gives the parable of the man who builds on the solid foundation and the one who builds upon the sand. In the bottom line he says that solid, well-grounded religion is religion that recognizes and practically embraces my appointed authority. You call me Lord and yet you are not doing the things that I say.

20:39 I am not Lord in name only. I am to be Lord and Master in reality. In another context he says you call me Master and Lord and so I am. So he was very conscious of his position as the leader of his people.

20:59 So conscious that when he gave the Great Commission in Matthew he said make disciples of all the nations Matthew 28, 19 baptizing them and teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you. So he was conscious of his position not only in terms of his contemporary disciples but of all those who would be gathered unto him as disciples to the consummation of the age. So in our Lord Jesus Christ there was no ambivalence concerning his divine appointment to a position and office of authority and of rule.

21:45 However, without in any way relinquishing or diluting the biblical concept of that position in the outworking of it he consciously took the place of a servant not only to God but to men.

22:07 He consciously took the place of servant not only to God as the servant of Jehovah I do always the things that please me please my father I can do nothing of myself what I hear I speak what my father reveals to me as his will I do but with reference to the creatures that he made. Men he took the place of a servant. Matthew chapter 20 and perhaps this is the most crucial text from the lips of our Lord Jesus. You remember you remember in the setting in Matthew 20

22:51 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.

23:36 The Lord Jesus without being duly upset knowing what he was dealing with verse 25 he called them unto him and said you know that the rulers of the Gentiles Lord it over them. I believe the verb is kata kuryu they exercise authority in a way that is oppressive they lord it down upon them perhaps would be a better way to render the sense of the verb. You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them that is with the concept of duly acknowledged and properly

24:21 conferred authority and rule their whole concept is you rule down upon the ruled and they cannot think of rule in any other way. You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their great ones exercise authority over them. Not so shall it be among you. 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.

25:03 Not so shall it be among you but whosoever would become great among you and there's nothing wrong with an ambition to spiritual greatness. He doesn't say whosoever would become great among you repent of the ambition for spiritual greatness. He doesn't tell them that. It is legitimate to have holy ambitions for spiritual greatness.

25:34 Not spiritual notoriety before men but true greatness in the eye of God. Here's the way to it. He shall be your minister. He shall be your diaconos your table server.

25:50 He shall become your waiter and whosoever would be first that is who would have the place of first rank not simply generically among the great ones but even among the great ones to be the first in rank and he doesn't condemn that and whosoever would be first among you shall be your doulos your slave your bond servant your diaconos may fulfill his hours and go home to his family your doulos stays within the household no name of his own no home

26:35 of his own no possessions of his own he is the property of his master. Now some would contend that the words are simply used as synonyms with a different shade of meaning I personally believe that that is not responsible exegesis there is progression from great to first and our Lord is saying many may attain unto greatness only one attains to first rank and if you would go to the level of greatness become diaconos become table server and if you would go to the place of first rank then become doulos slave

27:18 and bond servant you see the parallel in Luke chapter 22 verses 24 to 27 Luke chapter 22 verses 24 to 27 there arose a contention among them who should be accounted the greatest the kings of the Gentiles have lordship they that have authority are called benefactors but you shall not be so but he that is the greater here we have comparative let him become as the younger and he that is chief superlative as he that doth serve so I believe my exegesis is bucked us by the parallel passage and our Lord says

28:03 that the way to true greatness in the service of Christ is to be possessed of a disposition of servanthood now if you turn to John 13 and here we don't have time to expound the passage in detail but to remember the incident in verses 1 to 17 the incident of our Lord washing the disciples feet and if he is to wash he must take the servant's place then in commenting upon this he moves from his own exclusive work verses 8 to 10 Jesus said if I wash

28:48 you not you have no part with me Simon Peter said Lord not my feet only but my hands and my head Jesus said to him he that is bathed needs not saved to wash his feet and he is clean every wit and you are clean but not all for he knew him that should betray him therefore he said you are not all clean the emphasis there is upon his foot washing as a pattern as an illustration of his redemptive work you see that but the foot washing was not only an illustration of his redemptive work in which he alone shares if I wash thee not thou hast no part but according to verses twelve to sixteen his foot washing was

29:32 also an example and a pattern for his disciples to follow you see the one act was two distinct things in the one case it illustrated redemptive activity in which Christ alone shares and in the other it illustrated the servant servanthood which is to be the paradigm of his people so when he had washed their feet and taken his garments and sat down he said do you know what I've done to you you call me teacher and Lord and you say well for so I am see where the emphasis falls you acknowledge me as the one who is over you in the Lord to instruct you and to govern you

30:17 you call me teacher and Lord and so I am and in that position of properly endowed duly recognized authority what have I done if I then the Lord and the teacher have washed your feet you ought also to wash one another's feet for I have given you an example that you should also do as I have done to you verily I say unto you a servant is not greater than his Lord neither is one that is sent greater than he that sent you see that beautiful conjunction

31:01 of authority to teach and to govern conjoined with the willingness to do the task of a servant and how beautifully it is set forth in the Lord Jesus Christ himself and you find a similar emphasis in a passage like Ephesians 5 23 and again brethren I take the time to try to soak your spiritual nerve endings in these concepts so that you will never escape them throughout all of your days in this beautiful passage on Christ and the church as the paradigm of the marriage relationship notice the emphasis upon

31:45 verse in verse 23 for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church himself the savior of the body he is head of to save and to save he must do what he must minister and give his life a ransom for many the son of man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and in this very passage then it says Christ gave himself up for the church that he might sanctify cleanse and present it to himself so you see in all of these strands in the differing

32:30 imagery there is one common denominator that in our Lord the chief shepherd in our Lord the great bishop we find this assertive servanthood and this was clearly reflected in the apostle Paul as well the familiar passage 2nd Corinthians 4 and verse 5 we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord and ourselves your doulos your or douloi your servants for Jesus sake your bond slaves

33:15 for Jesus sake well Paul I thought you introduced yourself as a bond slave of Jesus Christ are you Christ bond slave or are you the bond slave of men he says it's not either or it's both and my a supreme allegiance is to Christ but in the pattern of my service I am to be like my Lord who did not come to be ministered unto but to minister and to give to take the role of a servant now when men would seek to bind our consciences and cause us to do things God does not require of us then we need the first Corinthians 723 passage you were bought with a

34:00 price be not the slaves of men there is a sense in which you must never be a slave of men where men's requirements would intrude upon the blood-bought rights of Jesus Christ that he has in you reject them but up to that point I must be prepared to do whatever I can do to become whatever I must become to gain the good will of men that I might put the gospel in their ears that God might make it effectual in their hearts and then when they are made the children of God and incorporated into the church I must see myself as a doulos as a bond slave

34:44 who exists for their advancement in faith that's why Paul could say in first Corinthians 9 and verse 19 without any contradiction to what he said in chapter 7 he says for though I was free from all men I brought myself under bondage to all that I might gain the more I am free Christ free man purchased by his blood and yet I brought myself under bondage to all and so brethren in our Lord and in the apostle we see this concept of assertive

35:28 servanthood who can think of our Lord as being anything other than an assertive Lord and Master with respect to his people who can think of the apostle Paul in any other way who is familiar with his life as recorded in Acts and as facets of it are unveiled in the epistles without thinking of him as an assertive leader and yet in every phase it was assertive servanthood let me say by application brethren we are thinking particularly in this context of those non public non , preaching and teaching aspects of oversight

Application of Assertive Servanthood in Ministry and Family

36:11 you see in a sense the joy and the exhilaration that come with public ministry can make the role of a servant a rather delightful one but when you get into the realm of the one-on-one laboring to see Christ formed in your people laboring for the peace and ongoing purity and harmony of the church when you get into the realm of having to enter into the bruised and the broken and the twisted and those whose thinking is so far removed

36:56 from biblical norms and they seem so slow to think biblically if you do not have this disposition of assertive servanthood you are never going to make it in the work of the ministry and I believe it was Peter's own observation of this that caused him to give the warning in 1 Peter 5 3 directed to elders echoing as it were the very spirit of his Lord shepherd the flock of God which is among you exercising the oversight not of constraint but willingly according to the will of God nor yet of filthy lucre

37:41 but of a ready mind now notice verse 3 neither and here's the very verb used in the Matthew 20 passage neither as lording it over the charge committed to you you see it's stuck with Peter yes exercise oversight shepherd the flock but never like the Gentiles their leaders throw their weight around they pull rank they push they shove they manipulate to impose their will and their way upon others not so shall it be among you not lording it

38:25 over God's of the charge allotted to you and brethren I plead with you that you will ask God to give you in these formative days before you ever think of taking a congregation of God's people and being considered as a duly recognized overseer ask God to baptize your heart with the spirit of assertive servanthood and the best place to learn it is in the ministry to your wife and your children that's why God says ruling well your own house is a requisite for the ministry because it is there that assertive

39:09 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

39:54 of prayer that's assertiveness but then in helping her to attain those goals you become her foot wash you take the role of a bondslayer you gird yourself with the towel of humility and as her heart consents to that assertion of your headship in seeking those goals and yet she's struggling you don't stand there and say come on woman get on with it that's lording it over your wife but you draw alongside and get down and wash her feet in helping her to move them into that very path same thing with the children

40:37 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

41:22 it is that disposition which marked our lord it is that disposition which marked the great apostle and without diluting the vigor of the biblical concepts of rule and oversight you who are around here you who were here last week know we have no desire to do it the disposition that must permeate that rule and oversight is that of a servant I would be so bold as to say and you can quote me on this the eldership is a continual diaconal service and you who have done a little study of the concept of ministry in the

42:07 new testament know that the word translated in our english translations ministry to describe what we would say the work of the ministry the word most frequently used is the standard word for deacon and the verb for deaconing those are the standard words used most frequently more frequently than any other word , why? because the ministry with all of its god-given authority the eldership with its legitimate and genuine rule and leadership in the church is a position of rule and authority that is to take

42:52 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

43:34 for them to be the sponge to soak up their almighty gift of preaching to be the cloud to be regulated by their almighty gift for leadership to be the hand to provide for their financial and material needs they have a concept that the church exists for them what a horrible distortion of what we've been contemplating none of you exist you exist for the church and anything you have in the way of gift and aptitude for preaching and governing those gifts are given that the

44:19 church might be saved that the church might come to maturity that the church might be preserved and ultimately glorified and without the spirit of assertive servanthood you will never do the work of oversight after the pattern of the word of God so let's touch the second one alright and I think that'll be a better place to break because it's on these first two that I spend the most time and then I can push the other four in the time allotted the second disposition or aspect of the dispositional complex is what I'm calling a disposition

Element 2: A Disposition of Meekness with Lowliness and Gentleness

45:03 of meekness with its handmaidens of lowliness and gentleness a disposition of meekness a disposition of meekness with its handmaidens of lowliness and gentleness picture meekness in the middle and lowliness and gentleness on each of her arms and the first and most pivotal text is found in Matthew chapter 11 because it's a setting in which the Lord Jesus is inviting people to come under his authority

45:48 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

46:32 of the yoke as the instrument that binds two animals together that they may plow the same furrow that they may haul the same cart and bear the same burden this much is clear in the imagery of the yoke that we are to be identified with the Lord Jesus with a view to subjecting our minds and subsequently our lives to the rule of his word take my yoke upon you and learn of me so however we view the precise imagery of the yoke this much is clear it has to do with coming under the authority of Jesus Christ

47:17 specifically the word of Christ now he says in coming into that relationship what will you find me to be for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest unto your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light there is a yoke there is a burden but the former is characterized as an easy yoke and the latter as a light burden there is a yoke there is a burden and what is it that makes the yoke easy and the burden light

48:01 well it would seem in the flow of our Lord's thought it is the discipline of the one to whom we are yoked and whose burden we bear you see that take my yoke then the attention falls upon his meekness and lowliness that's the disposition of the one in authority and then he says my yoke is easy my burden is light and here our Lord discloses that the disposition of his heart by which he will govern and teach his people is easy and then he says is that of meekness and lowliness and I want you to see another amazing

48:46 conjunction of these two things the authority of Jesus and the meekness of Jesus and it's striking there in the triumphal entry turn over to Matthew 21 in verse 5 21 in verse 5 after describing our Lord's entrance upon I'm sorry telling them that they shall find the ass tied with a view to our Lord entering Jerusalem upon that ass verse 4 now this has come to pass that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet saying tell the daughter of Zion behold thy king

49:30 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

50:13 of the war horse but meekly upon an ass and upon a coat the fold of an ass and then meekness is found in several contexts joined to lowliness on the one hand and gentleness on the other and that's why in the heading I gave that concept and I want you to look at the two passages or three Ephesians 4 and verse 2 Ephesians 4 and verse 2 the exhortation of verse 1 to the people of God is to walk worthily of the calling wherewith they were called with all lowliness

50:57 and meekness lowliness is now joined with meekness and then in 2 Timothy 2 24 and 25 where Paul is exhorting Timothy what to do and what not to do when he meets the recalcitrant and the stubborn and is tempted to be argumentative with them thinking that it's tit for tat and he must conquer men's minds with logic and the sheer force of one personality over another he said no the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle verse 24 of 2 Timothy 2

51:41 must be gentle toward all apt to teach forbearing in meekness correcting those that oppose themselves here gentleness and meekness are brought together gentle towards all men in meekness and then 2 Corinthians 10 in verse 1 we find those two parallel or attended graces brought together I Paul entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ

Defining Meekness, Lowliness, and Gentleness

52:25 now let me try to give you a little working description of these graces I've said that we must have a disposition of meekness with its attendance of lowliness and gentleness what are they may I suggest that meekness is the description or is the disposition characterized by the absence of carnal self-assertiveness it is the disposition characterized by the absence of carnal self-assertiveness self-assertiveness

53:05 which always gives birth to self-will self-seeking and ill which always gives birth self-will ill-will and what was the third thing that I mentioned self-seeking and ill-will I added that on my feet I had self-will and ill-will

53:50 and it would appear from the way that the attitudes are strung together that meekness is the product of humility remember the progression in the Beatitudes blessed are the poor in spirit blessed are they who mourn blessed are the meek that when a man has seen himself for what he is poverty of spirit and it is now a prevailing perspective of his soul upon himself and he carries with him the constant wound

54:33 of accurate self-knowledge blessed are they who mourn there you will find a meek man a man characterized by the absence of carnal self-assertiveness with its ugly children of self-will self-seeking and ill-will it does not and I want to underscore it does not preclude boldness vociferousness strong leadership activity

55:15 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

55:59 meekness, whatever you say dear, when you just guide the household by your wife's whims because you're going to be meek, no that's not meekness, that's cowardice that's effeminacy that's the absence of true leadership and Moses is called a man meek above all men upon the face of the earth and yet when he sees the idolatry he smashes the cables of stone and he's not rebuked for that activity of holy anger he was rebuked for his brashness when he said shall I bring water out of the rocks for these rebels that's when he forgot he was a servant of Jehovah

56:43 and he began to manifest the attitude of the carnal leaders of his day shape up or ship out and God says you won't enter the promised land for that horrible outcropping of the absence of the grace which is your greatest strength. But don't have any concept brethren that what we're talking about precludes strong vigorous and what some people will require will designate at times as an overbearing and disgusting authority. You make sure your concept of meekness is hammered out exegetically and I don't have time to go

57:27 into it but you just do a word study of paos and of pa-ates take your concordances and study out the passages and look at the concept of lowliness that long Greek word pape na fronosune the thing that was despised among first century Gentiles always used in a pejorative sense but in the New Testament Philippians 2 3 Colossians 3 12 and 1 Peter 5 5 it's set forth as a Christ like virtue what about lowliness

Paul as an Example of Meekness, Lowliness, and Gentleness

58:10 well it's the absence of arrogance and pride of mind that's what lowliness is that's the word that the Gentiles despise the word in Philippians 2 3 in lowliness of mind esteeming others better than themselves and then gentleness that's the absence and the opposite of harshness and insensitivity now put them all together and they form that aspect of the dispositional complex of the servant of Christ so essential to true

58:54 shepherding of the flock particularly in the aspects of biblical oversight granted that spirit ought to pervade your preaching and teaching but it will be far more tested as to its genuineness and depth in the individual and corporate dimensions of governing the flock than it will ever be put to test in your public preaching and teaching ministry the apostle Paul is a marvelous example of this he could say and we close this head and then we'll take a break at this point with just two or three texts from the pen of the apostle

59:38 in Acts chapter 20 should say here the pen of Luke recording Paul's testimony notice where he placed the emphasis in reviewing his ministry among the Ephesian elders Acts 2018 when they were come to him he said unto them you yourselves know from the first day that I set foot in Asia after what manner I was with you all the time serving the Lord fulfilling the functions of a bond slave to the Lord now notice notice what he emphasizes first with all lowliness of mind

60:22 that's the first characteristic upon which he focuses lowliness of mind now did that mean weakness of mind lack of perception in the mind lack of clear convictions in the mind of course not but it spoke of this disposition of meekness with its attendance of lowliness and gentleness and therefore it's not surprising that he goes on to say and with tears and with tears out of such a heart there will come tears in the disappointment in the frustrations in the solicitous the longings

61:06 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

61:51 brethren as we think of the problems the disappointments the flack the negative feedback we'll get from our best labors how essential essential that we've had would we be men by the grace of God who like our Lord our meat and lowly where we're going to get the food of the spirit

62:34 It doesn't grow in unblessed Adamic soil. And out of the fullness of Jesus, we must seek it in the fullness of the Spirit of Christ. For the fruit of the Spirit is described in terms of the grace.