Month: January 2023

Casting all your cares upon him; for he careth for you. (1 Peter 5:7)

            A few weeks ago, I had a brief conversation with one of our members as she left after a service. We were discussing bulletin articles and she thanked me for writing the articles each week. This was very encouraging because I am often not too sure whether these articles are read or they are simply a slick lining for the bird cage. I thanked her for the comments and remarked that these articles are one of my most difficult tasks each week. Usually, the article is additional commentary on the weekly sermon and may have a few thoughts that I did not plan to address. This type of article is in some measure less difficult to write because my mind is already focused on the Sunday subject. I do not need to invent a topic. It is also personally helpful as I reach more clarity on the subject I will preach.

            Other articles are often like this one. I wrote this when not preaching and while recovering from surgery. I did not have a sermon to lean on for bulletin material and a subject that needs more expansion. Neither do I want to merely fill space because there is room for it as a weekly feature of your handout.

            After thinking for a good while and staring at blank paper, I decided to tell you about needing encouragement while waiting for surgery. This article was written two weeks before the event, and quite honestly, my mind was filled with the positives and negatives of it. Additionally, it was a day that Pam wasn’t feeling well, and I was waiting to hear news from the Emergency Department. Earlier, I left her there for treatment. Because of the COVID surge, they would not let me stay with her. This provided one more reason that made writing so difficult.

            To be truthful, the blank thoughts problem had gone on for quite some time and was not confined to this one day. Since I was first told I needed surgery, I was resistant, and the wheels were turning but I was going nowhere. For several weeks, I was preaching in pain and trying to study while taking pain pills. If I said some strange things (stranger than usual), those statements were inspired from pill bottles.

            The brief experience I want to share is the method of finding encouragement. I felt my mind was wasting too much time in the fog which prevented spiritual growth and close communion with the Lord. Every night I pray before bed but neither does prayer mix well with pain medications. I needed something different while at the same time both soothing and encouraging. I laid in bed wearing my headphones so as not to disturb Pam. I set a random selection of hymns to play not realizing that the playlist had at least five artists/arrangements of the hymn His Robes for Mine set to repeat. I listened to the song multiple times and yet still hanging on every word. I cannot explain how pain, exhaustion, discouragement, and anxiety disintegrated as I heard countless times, “I cling to Christ, and marvel at the cost: Jesus forsaken, God estranged from God. Bought by such love, my life is not my own. My praise—my all—shall be for Christ alone.”

            There is a line in the song I am sure makes no sense to many: “Jesus is crushed, and thus the Father’s pleased.” And then in the end, “He, as though I, accursed and left alone; I as though He, embraced and welcomed home!” I went to sleep peacefully with this thought: “For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your mind.” (Hebrews 12:3).

Pastor V. Mark Smith

            This week’s article concerns the office of deacon. This is the second of the two offices the Lord ordained for His church. Although it is secondary, the office is good for the welfare of God’s people and can be especially beneficial for the pastor who learns to depend on them.

            The selection of the first deacons is recorded in Acts 6 during the time of phenomenal growth of the Jerusalem church. Three thousand were saved and baptized on the Day of Pentecost which was followed by thousands more in the next few weeks and months. The care of these many people both physically and spiritually was more than the apostles were humanly capable. Above the shear numbers, the church was poor and persecuted. Christians were outcasts from the hub of Jewish social order which was the temple and were unwelcome in the outlying spokes of the synagogue system. Jewish leaders demeaned them to the point that many lost their jobs and were without means of support.

            Reading Acts 6, we learn that the care of widows was an acute problem and precipitated an urgent action by the apostles to alleviate their dire economic distress. The office of deacon was born out of the necessity to supply the physical needs of the people—a need that consumed too much of the apostles’ time and limited their ability to teach, pray, and evangelize. Despite the fact the office was first developed for the supply of physical needs, we find the qualifications for it had much to do with each man’s spiritual health. They were to be above reproach in reputation and be men who had proved themselves to be faithful.

            The qualifications for the diaconate are remarkably like those of pastors. Two of the first six chosen were men who could teach and preach and were active in sharing the gospel. We can assume the others were likewise qualified. We may also assume that years later when Paul detailed the qualifications in 1 Timothy that he still had these qualities in mind for the type of men who would be chosen to fill the office. It is sad this ability has been neglected in most churches, and in many the office is downgraded to those who may take care of the physical plant but have no spiritual oversight.

            In the next few weeks, we will see our deacons actively helping with spiritual duties. They are always active but not always as visible as they will need to be as I recover from my surgery. At times, you will hear them from the pulpit preaching God’s word and relieving my burden of being unable to tend the sheep. This is the most stressful aspect of my recovery time. In a measure, my mental health will be much improved by knowing the pulpit is in good hands.

            The deacons derived the title of their office from diakonos, a word that means servant. Some pastors fear deacons and refuse to have their churches appoint them. This fear arises from improper authority given to deacon boards to run the church including censoring the pastor as they felt needed. They became the de facto office of singular authority. This is unscriptural and should be rather remedied by pastors teaching the people the biblical order of the offices.

            I thank the Lord that for twenty years the deacons and I have enjoyed a close working relationship in which they respect my authority and I resist acting unilaterally. Pastors and deacons must work together so that I do not fear an unspiritual coup and neither do they fear being marginalized. A healthy spirit of cooperation is best for all as we serve the Lord together.

            As always, I pray you will support all the leadership and be thankful for their willingness to be used as the church requires.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry (1Tim 1:12)

            In the organization of the church, our Lord placed significant emphasis on those who would be leaders of His people as He personally trained the apostles for the task of building upon the foundation He laid with their selection. Ironically, one served as an ominous example of everything leaders should not be as Judas Iscariot was a false professor, a liar, a traitor, and a cowardly, greedy robber of the poor who was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Jesus was not fooled by him but rather chose him as fulfillment of the prophecy of His betrayal. The eleven, however, were fully invested in the commission Jesus left them with as His resurrection sealed their utmost confidence in Him as the Messiah He claimed to be. This unwavering trust changed their fickle natures to follow Him unreservedly even to their deaths.

            Despite the historicity of death threats, it is not disconcerting in my thinking how the pastors of the Lord’s churches are successors to the work of the apostles. We are not successors of the apostolic office because it ceased upon the death of John. We are successors to the leadership of the Lord’s churches. If there is any part of the pastoral office most personally agonizing, it would be the poor comparison of my performance to theirs. I need the mercy and grace of God to withstand the fear in my soul of my woeful inadequacies.

            As I think through their perspectives of pastoral leadership, I wonder how I would instill enough confidence that God’s people would follow me. Why should I require the obedience demanded in Hebrews 13:17 and the expectation others should be concerned how joyful my ministry should be? I only claim this because the word says I may. The Lord offers no excuses for my weaknesses, yet He understands all my frailties. My abilities are less judged than my motivations when they arise from a sincere desire to serve Him. A pure heart has weaknesses perfected in the power of the Holy Spirit.

            As I was contemplating these thoughts for this article, my mind was drawn into the close camaraderie experienced among the membership of the church. This gathering of people is my responsibility. These are the same who have covenanted together in the gospel and have made a commitment to each other and to the work of the church. Hebrews says I must give an account of their souls. Surely, nothing more plainly teaches church membership. The Lord does not hold me accountable for others, although I am happy to feed them when they visit our pasture.

With church membership, a better relationship is established in which I know my people as they know me. A shepherd recognizes which sheep belong to his flock and likewise the sheep know their shepherd. I suspect the sheep will accept many flaws in the shepherd if they are satisfied with the food he offers them. Through many years of pastoring, I recognize the flaws and am more aware than any of where I fall short of expectations. I may not be sure what to do to make up for the shortcomings, but I hope the food is nourishing and wholesome and you are able grow thereby. If so, perhaps you will look past me to the one who providentially enabled me for the ministry.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Each time I preach on the office of the pastor, the obligatory questions about women in leadership are always a part of the discussion. It is rare that biblical research is done first before these questions are asked. It is as if the answers are difficult to find. Rather, the noticeable absence of women in pulpits is first observed with the certain impression that something is seriously amiss. It does not seem to cross the mind that two thousand years of church history might have long ago established a pattern that has been fleshed out by countless discussions during these twenty centuries. When all these discussions are done, it is men who stand in pulpits and church leaders are men who are scripturally qualified.

            We might think this matter was hashed out with intense argument before finally settling on the proper protocol in the New Testament church. This is patently wrong as there was no council that finally put a stamp on the accepted practice. The issue was settled on the sixth day of creation when God created Adam first and then took Eve from his side to be his helper. The order of creation established the authoritative preeminence of the man in the creation. This preeminence has nothing to do with intellect or natural ability (that is, beyond physiological differences). It pertains to the role each is to have in the societal order.

            Lest we fail to make the correct authority connections in the establishment of the church, the apostle Paul addressed this issue in 1 Timothy 2. In verses 11 and 12, he is unmistakable concerning the subordinate nature of the woman’s position in teaching and authority. He solidifies the woman’s subjection to the man by reinforcing it in verse 13 with the created order. “For Adam was first formed then Eve.” No lengthy discussions are needed. No excuses are made because the subjection of the woman to the man has always been a principle of the created order.

            To impose a new subjective standard, the contestants for women pastors must find a way to alter the most ancient of human relationship principles repeatedly emphasized throughout the scriptures. There is no motive for change except the satisfaction of a society that desires and insists upon it. They seek an elusive, unbiblical, undesirable equity that is nothing less than the shackles of sin. It is reprehensible enough to put a woman in the pulpit by twisting and ignoring the creational principle that rules men and women for the good of all society, but what of that which desecrates the divine order? Does not Christ model the godliness of the subordination we are discussing?

            Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 11:3, “But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.” If the headship of the man over the woman is undesirable in the carnal relationship, then it is equally undesirable in the incarnational subordination of the Son to the Father. 1 Corinthians 11:3 is meaningless chatter if any of these three subordinate positions is overthrown.

All this twisting is done to satisfy the subjective feelings of women who want authority! No godly, God honoring, God fearing, respectful, holy woman would dare entertain such wicked thoughts. If she does, she disqualifies herself from the pulpit she attempts to stand in as a representative of Jesus Christ. This is a catch-22 of overwhelming proportions. No wonder our Lord had no other name for women preachers than Jezebel!

Pastor V. Mark Smith

            Last year in our study of the New Testament church, I taught a three-part series on the office of pastor. Since our expositions of the church were comprehensive, it was necessary to examine the positions of leadership which are pastors and deacons. The pastor is the foremost leader as he is the undershepherd of the Chief Shepherd who is our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the pastor’s job to represent Christ and to lead the flock as He would lead them. With this description, you can see the weight of responsibility the pastor carries especially when the scriptures tell us he must give an account to the Chief Shepherd of his stewardship.

            Because of the pastor’s visibility, everything he is and does is scrutinized. This includes his personality, knowledge, oratory, and many other qualifications extending to his family as well. The pastor is to be circumspect in all these because of the one he represents. Satan throws many stumbling blocks in the paths of God’s people. Surely, the pastor must not be one of them! Before I am through with this series, I believe these many areas of the pastor’s ministry will become clearer to you.

            From many years of experience, I can testify the pastor’s work is rigorous and demanding. Any pastor who has been at this for a while will not fail to tell you that meeting the many expectations of the office is spiritually, physically, and mentally exhausting. I choose to focus on only one aspect in this article which is preaching. Hours of work are put into preparing sermons which I believe should be the greatest singular focus of pastors. We must give God’s people His word and we must deliver it accurately and in the power of the Holy Spirit. At times, the preparation can feel too repetitious, and the pastor becomes worn out from the many hours of prep to deliver 45 minutes of exposition. Much material is fed into the sermon hopper before the finished product compactly emerges.

            This job is week by week with little relief. Forty-hour work weeks are an unimaginable luxury. For me, sermon preparation starts on Monday and ends when the finishing touches are applied just before leaving home for church on Sunday mornings. When the 45 minutes of delivery are done, the cycle starts again on Monday morning with the same schedule. And yet with all the time preparing, there is often the sense it has not been enough. When it is far too late to change, an anxious feeling usually arises on late Saturday afternoon. It extends into the few minutes before walking into the pulpit that something will go wrong. The delivery will be poor and the reception of it even poorer. This anxiety lingers until the first few words are spoken and the sermon text begins to flow. At the end, the congregation analyzes what they heard, and the pastor awaits the results. Most comments are polite and perhaps not too much to be trusted. It’s the silence of no comments that usually tells the most.

            What I have just described cannot be the ultimate test of the success of preaching. The real test is, do they come back? Will they be there next week to hear another in the same series, and will they faithfully attend do show that what they hear has been received and recognized as integral to their spiritual growth?

            My discouragements in ministry are often cojoined with departures. I do not want people to leave. I too often evaluate this as failure when more often I am lifted from discouragement by a note of appreciation from the departing that says they learned more of the Bible at Berean than they thought possible or had experienced in other places of their Christian sojourn. This is when joy seeps out of the tedious repetitiveness of preparations for the never-ending succession of Sundays.

            The pastor’s job has many facets but none as critical as preaching. I pray for the power of the Holy Spirit to do it many, many more Sundays.

Pastor V. Mark Smith