1 Timothy 4:6-16, “If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. 10 For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. 11 Command and teach these things. 12 Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. 13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. 14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. 15 Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

Introduction

Getting the right portrait of the right person is important.

Once upon another life, before I was a minister, I did a lot of other things. Once I was a caricature artist. One day, as I was pursuing my work amidst a gaggle of people all gathered around me at a Fall Festival, I was commissioned by a father to draw his child. I began to draw the person in front of me. It was a tremendous portrait if I do say so myself. There was only one small problem: when I handed the portrait to the father, he said, “this is not my daughter.” I had drawn the wrong kid. The portrait was a perfect rendition of the child in front of me, but it was not the man’s daughter! It is important to get the picture right!

We know that as fathers. And so we look to the model of fatherhood in the Bible to draw a portrait of the man we should be. We look to the Bible to get the right portrait of a godly mother and wife and everything else in life. Getting the portrait of a pastor is important.We may all sorts of ideas about what a pastor should do or shouldn’t do, what he should or shouldn’t look like.

Once I was getting my haircut, and I discerned that the barber was not a Christian, indeed had little or no background in the faith. As we were talking, I felt I had finally broken through, when he said, “May I ask you a question?” “Yes, of course,” I stated with some hope for a breakthrough! “Do all priests and monks, and ministers like you have this little round place that cut out in the back of their heads?” Well, he had the wrong picture of a minister to be sure!

It is important that we get the right picture, the accurate portrait of what God is calling us to be. This is essential for a seminary andfor every local church. It is also necessary for your walk with the Lord as well.

Now before you check out and say, “This is a good article for preachers, but since I am not a preacher this is not for me,” remember that God’s Word has something to say to every man and woman and boy and girl today. For as the Lord give us a portrait of a minister approved by God, we also see features of the believer approved by God.

Context and depth and perception are important in painting. It is so here. You see, in 1 Timothy 4.1-5 Paul painted a portrait of apostasy. So he turns to Timothy in 4.6-16 and paints the portrait of faithfulness to resist the apostasy and even to save himself and others from the deadly consequences of such teaching.

And so it is in this context that St. Paul the Apostle instructs Pastor Timothy: “If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine.”

Because we live in a world of distorted images drawn by men, it is important to focus on the portrait of a pastor approved by God.

Paul speaks of Christ Jesus and calls him, in this passage, “the living God.” He emphasizes the divinity of our Lord Jesus by calling Him this. So let us follow Paul’s language and speak of a minister approved by Christ Jesus. Exactly, what are the features of this portrait of the Christ-approved pastor (and remember, we can take the same elements and apply them to a “Disciple approved by Christ Jesus”)? The first feature is this:

1.      A Minister Approved by Christ Jesus is a Disciplined Minister (1 Timothy 4:6-8)

The training that Paul speaks of in verse 9 is in fact “discipline.” One of the best books I have read on discipleship is based on this very verse and is called Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life by Dr. Donald Whtiney. Paul is calling for Timothy to be practiced, disciplined, trained as he goes out.

The minister is not naturally given to the life of servanthood and sacrifice and trial that is going on at Ephesus.  He must be “trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine.” Moreover, we read in verse 7 that he should be “trained in godliness.”  This is the Pauline combination of faith, doctrine, and godliness. But what is clear is that God expects training to be in place for ministers and in fact for all of God’s people, but especially for Ministers of the Gospel.

I once had a young deacon, naive about the ministry and sadly ignorant about the Word of God, tell me, “I see you give a speech a couple a times per week and then get all this vacation time. This sounds like a pretty good gig to me! Where do I sign up?” Well. In the training of Timothy, Paul trained him in order to bring about God’s kingdom to a most unruly situation. Just look in 1 Timothy and see what this man faced:

Timothy faced false teachers in 1 Timothy1:3-11

Timothy faced the need to be transparent, like Paul, in laying his life bare before enemies so that they might become, like Paul, a trophy of God’s grace (1.12-17);

Timothy was called to hold to the faith with a good conscience in spite of hardship and in the presence of others who are slipping away (1 Timothy 1:18-20).Timothy must address controversies in worship (2).Timothy must address the issue of how to integrate faith and politics, in praying for kings and all in authority (2.1-2);

Timothy must address the issue of the role relationships of men and women in ordained ministry (2.8-15);

Timothy must teach and oversee the ordination of deacons and elders (3); and

Timothy must address the issues of demon possessed false teachers who are deceiving the flock and imposing ungodly rules on the people.

Now. Who wants to apply to be a minister?

The Bible is clear. The work of the Gospel is opposed by Satan, not naturally accepted by the flesh, and resisted by the minister himself, once he comes into contact with the demonic and the anti-Christian attitudes of not just the world, but those who bring the world into the Church!

To face these perils, we must encourage men who are called to be ministers to submit their lives to other pastor-scholars for an extended period. During this time there will be a Pauline-like oversight, instruction, and spiritual formation to produce the soldier of the Lord for the battles we face in our own day. For in the training up of ministers, we build up the Church.

But let me ask you: How do you approach your life as a believer? No, you may not be called, but you are a soldier in the army of the Lord as well. The answer drawn from this and many other places in the Word of God is that you too need training. For some of you that may be a call to prepare for deeper service at a seminary. But for most, it means regularly sitting under the preaching of the Word of God and the administration of the Sacraments. It means involvement in a small group or Sunday School class. It means daily Bible study and time with God in His Word. It means seasons of prayer, formulated from the Word itself.

Someone asked me not too long ago, as they were facing a remarkably difficult time in their church, “How can we find discernment and wisdom to make the right decision?” I replied that the answer was not just prayer, but the answer is, “The man who can rise to the occasion to lead in times of trial is the man who has been trained to do so, through time spent with God.” Seminaries should be training future ministers in this way. Yet, each and every one of us must be in the faith training camp. Each of us must ask ourselves the question, “How are we doing in our training in godliness?”

So this is the first feature: Discipline. Now look at the second feature of this Scriptural portrait:

2.      A Minister Approved by Christ Jesus is a Diligent Minister (1 Timothy 4:10)

For we read in verse 10, “For to this end we toil and strive because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.”

The minister approved by Christ Jesus is one who is not just diligent in keeping busy. He is not only diligent in becoming a veritable ringmaster of programs and executive oversight of a religious store. No. This man is careful in preaching Jesus Christ as the Savior of all people.

It was Lesslie Newbigin who said that if the Church does not exist to fulfill God’s purposes on earth, then it ceases to be the Church. And we must say that this passage would lead us to affirm that and to add that if a minister is not toiling and striving to preach Jesus as Savior to the whole world, if a minister is not looking to preach Jesus as Savior to his flock, to his community, and also to the whole world, he is not a global-minded minister concerned for the purposes of Jesus Christ in the earth, then he ceases to be a minister of Christ.

I have served the last twenty-five years in the U.S. Army Reserve Chaplain Corps. I was, once, stationed at the Pentagon. While there I talked to a number of our military leaders. I remember hearing a recurring theme from all of the leaders: a concern that our nation did not act like we were at war. Things look peaceful because, at that time, there were no firefights in the streets of New York (sadly, there are now; and, regrettably, some poorer sections of the great city of Chicago have become veritable killing fields). Many in the media seemed to focus on other things. But the truth is we were, and we are at war. The Islamic State has left no ambiguity about their aims. If you don’t think we are at war, it is only because our courageous troops are fighting the battle in a far away land so that you don’t have to know the very real threat every second of your life here at home (and for that we pray and support our troops in the battle).

I bring this up because one of the greatest devices of the devil is to make us believe that we are at peace. But the Bible tells us that we are in a spiritual war. And we are all soldiers in the Army of the Lord. Our work is spiritual, not physical. And our weapons are supernatural. And the work of the minister is to toil and strive to preach Jesus as Savior to the world. This is a ministry and a minister and a believer’s work that is approved by God.

The first feature was disciple and the second diligence. A third feature of the portrait is this:

3.      A Minister Approved by Christ Jesus is a Godly Minister (1 Timothy 4:12)

Nothing could be plainer when we read these words:

“Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.”

Before Paul gets to doctrine, Paul focuses on life. Because if you can recite the Shorter Catechism backwards or for that matter recite the whole book of Psalms perfectly but you have not love, have not godliness in your speech and in your faith in Jesus and in purity of life, what good is it? Indeed, all of the doctrine in the world is useless without godliness. And so Paul begins with a heart for God.

Recently I spoke to a young woman who is at our seminary to be trained to become a missionary. She wants to minister to Muslims in the middle east. She has come here to get her doctrine, to be trained in the things of God, to learn the Bible’s teachings, to sit under godly pastor-scholars to be filled with the truth of Christ’s teachings so that she can bring that teaching to others. But before she did that, she first had a love of Islamic peoples. Love drove her to learn. Love drove her to minister.

And this, my beloved, is the pattern in the Word of God.

“For God so loved the world, that He sent His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but will have eternal life.”

Love led Jesus to come to us. Love of Christ leads us to love others. And divine love leads us to minister. And whether you are old or young, eloquent or plain, culturally astute or culturally tone deaf, people will not despise those who come to them in love. The Love of God through Jesus Christ melts the most recalcitrant heart. And we must produce pastors who love.

But you also must love Christ and love others in order for them to receive your message.

Here is a fourth and final feature I would draw your attention to in Paul’s portrait:

4.      A Minister Approved by Christ Jesus is a Devoted Minister (1 Timothy 4:13-16)

In the last 3 verses of this passage, Paul calls Timothy to  “devote yourself,” to “not neglect the gift you have,” to “Practice these things, devote yourself to them,” and to “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching,” and finally to “Persist in this” for in doing so you will save yourself and your hearers.

To be called to the ministry is to be called to a life of devotion. Indeed, to be called to be a Christian is to be called to a life of devotion.

We must all be devoted to the Word of God. For the minister, he is to devote himself, as we see here, to the public ministry of the Word, to reading it as well as preaching it. The minister of the Gospel is to be so involved with the public ministry of the Word in worship that nothing in the service goes outside of his purview.

I was the 12th pastor since 1840 when I served at First Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga. One of my predecessors was the Reverend Dr. James Fowle. And I have heard, by those who sat under his ministry during the late 1940s, all the way through 1968, that he apparently spent as much time working on the pastoral prayer as he did the sermon. And some said he spent as much time on practicing the reading of the Scriptures as he did in preaching them (in this he was most faithful, for Paul told Timothy to give attention to the public reading of the Word).

But this is an example of what the Bible is saying. We aim to produce ministers who hear this message. In an age where so many want to be entertained by pastors who have become more talk-show host than a pastor, we believe that pastors ought to spend time in the Word and lead worship according to the Word of God. And for all of us, as the people of God, where is our focus in worship? Where is our focus in discipleship? It must be in the teaching of God in His Word, the Bible. Too often preachers give the people what they want. What people want is not always what people need. A physician of the soul—and that is what you are if you are a pastor—listens to the patient, assesses his or her symptoms, and, then, makes a diagnosis and treatment plan. That plan may or may not be the exact medicine that the patient desired.

Give them healing through God’s love in Christ at the cross. Give them hope. Give them a purpose for living. Give them the Gospel. Over and over again, give them the Gospel. Give them Christ.

Yet, some of the bizarre things that have come into the church have come because preachers have given in to the strange, television-influenced cravings of our people. Oh that God would raise up a generation of Christians who demand the Word of God in worship. Then would our pastors become all the more encouraged in doing what God has called them to do: to be devoted to the public reading of the Word of God.

We must also be devoted to watching over our own lives. The devil goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And lions like weak prey. And a minister who has lost his way, stopped devoting himself to the Word and to prayer, has lost his love of Gospel of grace in his own life, lost the love of his flock, and lost a love of the lost and of seeing the Kingdom of Jesus going to the ends of the earth, is like a wounded gazelle who has strayed from the herd. He is a prime target for the crouched lion to spring at him and rip him to shreds. And the percentage of ministers who are falling is astounding. It is in fact epidemic.

We must devote ourselves to Jesus each and every day. Oh that Christ would take me home to be with Himself rather than let me fall into sin and hurt my wife and son and our children and our seminary and our Church and the Body of Christ. But it doesn’t have to be that way¾for me or for you¾if we devote ourselves to the faith personally and privately each and every day and all through the day. The prayed up preacher, the prayed over believer, is safe from the fiery darts of the devil.

“Keep watch over yourselves.”

But we must also surely devote ourselves to the teaching of Jesus Christ. It is so easy to preach a “do this and do that” religion rather than the Gospel of God’s grace. Remember that this pathology of religion was, in large part, the very challenge before Timothy and what had precipitated Paul’s charge in this section of Scripture. There were those who were teaching that holiness came from performing certain pious acts of religion. “Refrain from this thing” and “follow this rule.” But the Gospel of Jesus Christ says that nothing can provide the righteousness. Nothing can take away our guilt before a holy God but the blood atonement of Jesus Christ at Calvary, where He died as a sacrificial lamb on the Cross. Nothing but faith in Him, this Savior of the World, this Christ Jesus, this divine God-Man, this carpenter from Nazareth who is God, can save us from our sins.

This is the Gospel we preach to others, and to ourselves. And if we persist in doing this¾that is if we continue in this doctrine of salvation by faith alone in Christ alone through grace alone to God’s glory alone¾we shall save ourselves and those who hear us.

Conclusion

The portrait of a minister approved by God is clearly shown to us. But is this not, I say again, a picture of a passionate believer? Is this not what Christ is calling all of us to be?

Disciplined in our training for the field of ministry?

Diligent in our laboring in the field of ministry?

Godly in our example before the flock?

Devoted to the Great Commission?

But let me leave you with a portrait of a young man in the seminary where I taught. This young man said that he had made a trip after he graduated college in South Carolina. He stated that he and a buddy flew to California and drove back across our beautiful continent, just to see the great cities, small towns, magnificent natural wonders of our scenic land. And they stopped in Salt Lake City. They took the tour of the Mormon Tabernacle. They were both impressed with the splendid architecture. They were amazed at the glory of the Tabernacle Choir, truly, a national treasure. While there, however, as he and his friend listened to the young lady giving the tour, the young men heard the guide speak of a faith that seemed so far from the grace of Jesus. In fact, the presentation seemed so focused on human works rather than divine grace that our seminary student had to steal away from the crowd. He told me that, like Joseph running to hide, he, too, hid to heave forth tears of a broken heart. He told me, “I wept because so much had been built, been worked for, been given all for a lie.” And he wept for the people who were not hearing the beautiful grace of Jesus Christ offered to all who would simply receive this free gift. He told me, “I think that God wants me to plant a church so I can preach about God’s grace to those who have not heard. I want to plant the church in Utah. I hurt for these people. Dr. Milton, there are more Bible believing, grace centered Christians in Egypt than in Utah. That breaks my heart.” I could see the pain, but also the passion in this young man as he spoke. Then he said, “Is it just boastful and wrong for me to think this way? You see I think that the Gospel guarantees success. I am not saying that I am going to be the greatest church planter, wherever the Lord sends me, but I am saying that the Gospel is more powerful and more compelling to hurting people than all of this?”

I listened. I told him, “No, son. It is not boastful to boast in Jesus. It is not naïve to believe that the Gospel of God’s grace will save human beings. And it is not wrong to weep for the lost and to be bold in Jesus to save them. You have a burden that can only be relieved by going to these dear people and giving them the grace of God in Christ. You must go.”

I tell you that this, then, is the portrait in 1 Timothy: a heart for God’s word, a passion for God’s world, and a commitment to God’s grace¾all wrapped in a love for the Savior who lived the life you could never live and who died an atoning death for your sins. What a picture. That is what we want to draw with the pen of God’s Word and God’s Spirit in the lives of those in seminary. For that, a broken heart compelled to preach the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ is the portrait of a minister approved by God.

But my beloved, is that a portrait of your life?

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