Audio transcript
What are we to consider flamboyant pastors? That's the query this Monday morning from a listener named Emily. Emily writes to ask this: “Pastor John, thanks for sharing your knowledge with all of us on this podcast. Not too long ago, social media accounts have surfaced and gained fairly a little bit of consideration, exhibiting many well-known pastors carrying extraordinarily costly and flashy garments, sneakers, watches, and so on. These accounts have sparked controversy as as to whether these leaders are justified in doing so.
“Many say they need to be capable of use the cash they earn nevertheless they need. Or that this stuff are items. Nevertheless, others are offended by their lavish life and say that regardless of how a pastor will get this stuff, they need to nonetheless present humility and respect for his or her congregations and those that are simply attempting to outlive. Many suppose that their flamboyant life convey Christ into disrepute. First Peter 3:3 appears to discuss with this topic. However I ponder what different scriptures speak about this? And the place do you stand on all of this?”
Nicely, there's little question the place I sympathize right here. My sympathies have been clearly expressed over time with regard to simplicity and the warfare way of life. I get indignant once I see pastors flaunt their luxurious as if it’s a convincing testimony that Jesus is extra satisfying than what cash should buy. Baloney. It's appalling.
So let me say it loud and clear, proper from the beginning: nobody is drawn to Jesus as a non secular, saving, and soul-satisfying treasure by the luxurious life of those that profess to evangelise the phrase—nobody. What attracts folks to preachers who make a giant deal of their luxurious is the hope of luxurious. That’s what they’re drawn to – the hope of luxurious.
Go and inform
That’s not Christianity. Christianity is to be drawn to a crucified and risen Saviour, whose greatness, magnificence, and value in themselves are so admirable and so satisfying that the center cries out with the psalmist in Psalm 63:3: “Higher is the love of the Lord than life.” .” Sure, and all the pieces on this life. You can’t reward the reality that Jesus is best than cash by giving the impression that you simply dwell for cash.
“You can’t reward the reality that Jesus is best than cash by giving the impression that you simply dwell for cash.”
With the approaching of Jesus, there was a decisive flip in redemptive historical past that made it inconceivable to make use of the Previous Testomony's magnificent temple, priestly robes, gilded vessels, and ostentatious hangings as a mannequin for up to date church buildings or Christian life. . It’s invalid. The Previous Testomony was largely a come have a look faith. The Queen of Sheba gasped at Solomon's wealth. However the New Testomony is essentially a go inform faith.
Not like the Previous Testomony, the Christian church has no temple, no geographic middle like Jerusalem, no ethnic identification like Judaism, no theocentric civil construction that places folks to demise for ungodliness. We’re pilgrim folks, exiles and refugees scattered among the many nations with the nice mission given by the Lord Jesus, to make disciples of all of the nations of the world. And we're not achieved with that.
All will not be that glitters
That is revolutionizing the way in which we take into consideration cash and the way we use our assets. All of it boils right down to the simplicity of warfare life the place we search to glorify God by finishing the Nice Fee and evangelizing our cities and exhibiting like to our fellow man. The New Testomony is unrelenting — it’s merely fantastic; simply learn it—by urgent us to simplicity and financial system for Christ's sake, and away from luxurious and affluence and present. For instance:
- Luke 6:20, 24: “Blessed are the poor, for yours is the dominion of God. . . . However woe to you who’re wealthy, for you will have accepted your comfort.”
- Luke 8:14: “They’re choked with cares and riches and the pleasures of life.”
- Luke 9:58: “The son of man has nowhere to put his head.”
- Luke 12:15: “A person's life doesn’t consist within the abundance of his possessions.”
- Matthew 6:19: “Don’t lay up for yourselves treasures on earth. . . however lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”
- Matthew 6:25: “Don’t worry about your life, what you’ll eat or what you’ll drink, or about your physique, what you’ll placed on. Will not be life greater than meals, and the physique greater than clothes?”
- Luke 12:31: “Search ye his kingdom, and this stuff shall be added unto you.”
- Luke 12:33: Promote your possessions and provides to the needy. Safe a handbag of cash that by no means grows previous, a treasure in heaven that by no means fails.”
- Luke 14:33: “Whoever doesn’t resign all that he has can’t be my disciple.”
- Luke 18:24: “How onerous it’s for many who have possessions to enter the dominion of God!”
- James 2:5: “Has not God chosen the poor of the world to be wealthy in religion and heirs of the dominion?”
That is the chorus over and time and again all through the New Testomony, and even in these locations—and there are only some—the place wealthy Christians are instantly addressed, like 1 Timothy 6:17. The message is to be grateful to God for all of your rightful enjoyments and to be stuffed with good deeds for many who want it greater than you.
In different phrases, nowhere within the New Testomony is there any encouragement that we must always acquire and hoard or amplify the symbols of our wealth by what we put on, what we drive, and the place we dwell. A person who builds greater barns for what he doesn’t want is a idiot. He’s a idiot, says Jesus (Luke 12:20-21). The underside line is that this: accept a comparatively easy way of life. (And I say Comparatively (as a result of I do know that just about all People are wealthy as a result of the remainder of the world—or two-thirds of the world—lives so near the sting.)
“Be content material with a comparatively easy way of life.”
So I'm speaking a couple of comparatively easy way of life. Make as a lot cash as you need and provides what you don't want for the glory of Christ and the unfold of the gospel and the care of the struggling. Many of the New Testomony revolves round three essential considerations on the subject of educating about cash: (1) present the price of Christ and the gospel, (2) meet the wants of the misplaced and struggling, and (3) keep away from the hazards of wealth that destroys the soul So just some phrases about every of them.
Treasure in toil
First, present the worth of Christ and the gospel. Paul stated in Philippians 3:8, “I depend all issues as loss due to extra [value] of the data of Christ Jesus my Lord.” He needed to dwell in order to indicate that his coronary heart was happy with Christ and never held captive by the idol of covetousness. So he labored together with his fingers slightly than giving the impression that he was working away from the church buildings. First Thessalonians 2:5 he says, “We have now by no means include phrases of flattery, as , nor with an excuse for greed. We have now not used our service as a canopy for our love of cash.”
He stated to the elders in Ephesus, “I didn’t covet silver or gold or clothes. You yourselves know that these fingers ministered to my wants and to those that have been with me” (Acts 20:33–34). He advised the Corinthians, “We aren’t like many who promote the phrase of God” (2 Corinthians 2:17). He advised Timothy, “If we’ve meals and clothes, we can be content material with these” (1 Timothy 6:8). After which he advised all pastors that they need to not love cash (1 Timothy 3:3).
The which means of all these phrases was to take away each impediment to religion within the gospel and to indicate the upper worth of Christ above all earthly possessions and to offer the believers an instance of self-denial and the joyful embrace of sacrifice for the sake of affection. As a result of, as Jesus stated, “It’s extra blessed to offer than to obtain” (Acts 20:35). Anybody who has walked with Jesus for any size of time is aware of that the extra beneficiant you might be—the much less egocentric you might be—the happier you may be and the higher you’ll sleep at evening.
Reside to offer
The second main concern of the New Testomony and the property is meet the wants of the misplaced and struggling. Jesus stated: Promote your possessions and provides to the needy. Lay up for yourselves purses of cash that don’t develop previous, a treasure in heaven that doesn’t fail” (Luke 12:33).
Paul stated, “Let the thief not steal, however slightly let him work together with his personal fingers at sincere work, in order that he could have one thing to share with anybody in want” (Ephesians 4:28). Isn't it superb? In different phrases, don't steal and work simply to have – work to offer. There are three ranges. You may steal, you possibly can work to have, and you’ll work to offer. And he says, “Go there, Christians—go there. Reside there. Reside to offer.”
Christians will inherit the entire world and all the pieces in it. We may dedicate a whole session to 1 Corinthians 3:21-23. You have got all of it, Christian. You don't must catch it straight away. You'll get a breath of steam. This little world will finish. The current world is misplaced with out the gospel. Hundreds of thousands are struggling. That is an age for radical generosity and sacrifice, not an age for luxurious dwelling.
Soul Snare
Lastly, quantity three, the final fear about possessions is keep away from the soul-destroying risks of wealth. Jesus says that it’s onerous for the wealthy to enter the dominion of God (Luke 18:24). Paul stated, “Those that wish to be wealthy fall into temptation, right into a snare, into many mindless and hurtful needs, which plunge folks into smash and destruction” (1 Timothy 6:9). Holy goodness. How clear can Jesus and Paul be concerning the risks of hoarding and hoarding?
So I say it once more: it’s appalling that those that declare to be trustworthy servants of the phrase of God flaunt their luxurious – simply appalling. It transforms Christ from a lovely, all-satisfying Savior to a mediator who provides us what we actually need—cash and luxury.
