I Believe According to the Scriptures: You Cannot Hire a Shepherd - 2 Timothy 4:1-5

Drawing richly from the Augsburg Confession Article Five -Of the Ministry, the stories of Moses and Peter, and the heart of pastoral vocation, Dr. Larson urges faithful preaching of the Word in season and out, with patience and love, for a church that desperately needs true shepherds. This moving message will inspire pastors, church leaders, and every believer who longs to see Christ at work in office of Holy Ministry.

Information about The American Association of Lutheran Churches (TAALC) can be found at www.taalc.org

Transcript

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In the cascading layers of noise in our ever-changing world, discovering a space for reflection and inspiration is increasingly rare. Welcome then to Faith Comes by Hearing, a unique podcast series that cuts through the clamor, carrying the timeless messages of the gospel into our lives with renewed relevance. Join Dr. Carrie Larson, the presiding pastor of the American Association of Lutheran Churches, as he ventures into the challenges of everyday life and the deep need to hear the truth that we are saved by grace, through faith, through Christ Jesus alone. Each episode is an invitation not just to listen, but to truly hear and embrace the good news of Christ Jesus for you and for all.

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Last month we observed the 486th anniversary of the presentation of the Augsburg Confession. It was presented to the Holy Roman Empire, Charles V at the Diet of Augsburg on June 25, 1530. The Augsburg Confession with its 28 articles is a proper, as we say, in the church, exhibition or presentation of the Christian faith as taught in the Holy Scriptures. I've always been edified by the godly wisdom that constructed this important confession. Article one comes right out of the shoot, and we talk about God. Who is God? And why do we worship Him? Article II immediately brings up and addresses that we have a problem, a serious problem, a deadly problem, and that is called original sin. Without sin, we can never stand before a holy God. So then comes Article three on the Son of God. Christ Jesus comes to us so that he might, quote, reconcile the Father unto us. Now comes the linchpin. Article four on justification. Because we can't possibly make ourselves presentable before a holy God by our own strengths, merits, or works, but are freely justified for Christ's sake through faith. And this faith God imputes for righteousness in his sight. Now, Article Five explains why are we here today? Article five is titled Of the Ministry. That we may obtain this faith. Christ Jesus created the ministry of teaching the gospel and administrating the sacrament. Christ Jesus calls, equips, and sends pastors for you to have a saving faith. And for those pastors that are here have received holy orders, the point of this message is not just about Robert. I pray that you will remember Zicherong the vows that you made a while back. This message may seem like it's just Robert and I here in this room, and you're just eavesdropping, but this message is about you witnessing in real time that what Christ Jesus is doing is an amazing love for you and for his pride in the bride of the church, and the fact that there are people out here who don't know Jesus. And God has called a man to bring that gospel to them. Let us pray. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life. Amen. Robert, in a few minutes you will kneel before the altar of God. Hands will be laid on your head, and the church will ask the Holy Spirit to do to you that which has been done on faithful pastors since the apostles. Make you a servant of the word. But first hear the charge under which you are about to stand. I charge you, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. St. Paul is advanced in age. He is in prison and he writes these words, knowing fully well that his time is short. As he will acknowledge if you go to this 2 Timothy writing, that he will acknowledge in two more verses that he knows his time is short. And this passage is not intended to be a professional development seminar. This is rather a final and crucial instructions from a man who knows his time is short. And he is giving counsel to his successor. Every element of these five verses is crafted as a father addresses his son, whom he does not expect to see again on this side of heaven. Brother, receive it in the Spirit today, just as it was intended. Notice first who this charge invokes. Paul does not say, I charge you before this congregation, or before the ministerium, or before your seminary faculty. He charges Timothy before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who judges the living and the dead. In a few minutes, you will make several serious promises. Fidelity to the Holy Scriptures, fidelity to the Lutheran confessions, fidelity to the pastoral office. You will make those promises to the church, and the church will hold you accountable to them, as it should. But you are not finally answerable to the American Association of Lutheran Churches or for the Congregation of St. Matthew's. You are answerable to Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead. That is a sobering thing to say to a man on the day of his ordination. And I say it because it's true. And because, rightly understood, it is also the most comforting thing I can tell you today. How is this comforting? If you were accountable only to this congregation, if you were accountable only to your brothers' pastors, if you were to stand in this office, our opinion would rise and fall upon you. And our opinion, being human is changeable. You have a better judge than that. The same Christ who judges you is the Christ who died for you. He does not sit on his judge's bench looking for grounds to unmake you. He has already made you as his own. Through the waters of holy baptism, he has claimed you as his. And he is the one who, in the laying on hands today, makes you his minister. This office does not rest on your worthiness. It never has. For any man who has held this office. This is a worthy saying. Because you are going to need it. The chosen text for the Old Testament. We talked about it in the Narthex. The Lord said to Moses, who has made man's mouth? Or who put the mute? Who makes the mute? The deaf, the seeing, the blind? Have I not, have not I the Lord? There now therefore go, and I will be your mouth and teach you what you shall say. Moses' objection is not humility, even though he is the most humble man in all scripture as recorded. It's much more closer to fear. He has just been told to go down to Egypt land to stand before Pharaoh, who many believe he's a god on earth. And his response to the call is laden with excuses. Four or five times, depending on how you count it. His response to the call is he's laden with, I can't talk right, I have a slow tongue, I can't speak eloquently. And God does not argue with him about his rhetorical gifts or the lack thereof. God doesn't pat Moses on the head and say, gosh darn, you're gonna do just great. God instead asks the question, who has made man's mouth? And when God does not offer a compliment, but he gives a promise, I will be with your mouth. Robert, you are not being ordained today because this ministerium of the AALC has been polled and your gifts and have been recognized, and your eloquence is there, and you're wise enough, you're strong enough for this office. Some of us who love you very much know your limits very well. That was true for Moses. That was true for Peter, and that was true for Paul. It's been true for every man who stood and stands in this office, including the one who will be laying hands on you. The question is never whether you are sufficient. You are not. The question is whether the one who has called you is sufficient, and whether he has promised to be with your mouth. He is and he will. The promise made at the burning bush is not one degree less true to you than it was for Moses. Peter, Paul rather charges. Preach the word. Not your opinion about the word, not your feelings about the word, however sincere, not a running commentary on the news of the day with an occasional biblical footnote attached, the word, God's word, God's law that accuses, and God's sweet gospel that absolves absolutely, that actually forgives, actually raises the dead. That is your job description in three words. Preach the word. And everything else will in this office, in ministrying and sacraments, the counseling, the hospital calls, the committee meetings, the budget, the building, all of it serves this one task. And if it's not, it's of the world, and that's okay, we're in the world and not of it, but it's not your job. Be ready in season and out of season, which means be ready whether it is convenient or not. Be ready whether people want to hear it or not. Be ready whether you're feeling it or not. Paul tells you exactly why this is a needful thing in the next breath. He says, For the time will come when they, that is the people, will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. Another translation will say myths. This is not a description of some distant future crisis. It's a description of the church in every age, including this one, including 2026. Robert, you have received a call from a congregation that has traversed a very difficult season defending the truth of Scripture and the faithfulness of the Lutheran confessions against real pressure to trade it for something more convenient, something more in line with the spirit of the age. You have watched a good deal of this closely. I charge you, do not let that experience make you bitter. And do not let it make you cynical about the bride of Christ. Instead, let it teach you exactly what Paul was teaching Timothy. That faithfulness to sound doctrine has never once been the popular opinion. In any century, it is not going to start by being popular for you now. Preach the word anyway. In season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort, and do all three of them. Paul says, with long suffering. We don't use that term much these days. Patience. With patience. And folks, patience is not an option in this office. A man who reproves without long suffering or patience is not doing the Lord's work, he's doing his own work. Which brings me to the gospel text. Because a change, or rather, a charge to preach, reprove, and rebuke could sound, if I stop right here, like a job description. Robert, you were not hired. This congregation called you. We believe our Lord Jesus Christ used the congregation to be his voice to call you. Just as in a not too distant place, like maybe tomorrow you will say, in the stead, and by his command, I forgive you all your sins, as if Jesus is using your voice to offer forgiveness to his people. Jesus says to the man that he commissioned. Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know I love you. And he said to him, Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep. Three questions because of three denials. Jesus doesn't step around Peter's failures to get to the good part. He goes straight through the failures to reach it. He restores Peter precisely at the point of his greatest shame, and he does it by asking, not, are you competent? but do you love me? Robert, the foundation of your ministry will not be because of your competence, and I have every expectation that every time I will see you and will be too far apart too many days, but the next time I see you, I know you'll be growing in competencies. But the foundation of your ministry is your love for Christ Jesus. And even that love on your best day will be smaller and more mixed with self-interest than Peter was at the night in which he wept bitterly. He had the joy of walking with Jesus. But have no fear. Have no fear. Jesus builds his church on the confession of repentant sinners who love him imperfectly and obey him as our captain. He built it on the confession of Peter. And he continues to build it on your confession. And notice that that love is what is it to do? What is it to produce? Feelings? No. Duty. To feed and tend to his sheep. Not admire them as handsome and beautiful as they are, not to manage them and certainly not to entertain them. But to feed them. Untend them. And I'll tell you, brother, that means giving up sleep. That means that you have this agenda for the weekend and it gets turned upside down because of the needs of someone else. It means getting in the ditch and getting dirty with the sheep. For a while I was a shepherd. And I walked away from the barn many times, very stinky. But it was good work. It was wholesome work. It was honest work. All the more to tend to Christ. Everything you do for the sake of the sheep, for the sake of Christ, is honorable and good. And what then are you to feed them with? The word. And that word comes with water and sacrament, body and blood, and it nourishes the faith of Christ's lambs. So here, dearest Robert, is your charge. Given to you today in the words of three men who each knew the cost of the office. From Moses, who was afraid and was sent anyway. From Peter, who had failed and was restored and commissioned anyway. And from Paul. Once a persecutor of Christ Jesus spent the last letter to write to the next generation to understand what actually matters. What actually matters to all of you. Christ Jesus alone. Preach the word, Robert. Be ready an in-season and out-of-season. Reprove. Rebuke. Exhort. Always. Always with patience and love. Feed his lambs. Tend his sheep. And when you doubt, and you will, as every one of these brothers has in their own time, and continue to do, when you doubt whether your mouth is equal to what this church is all about and what this church is asking of you, do not doubt your Lord. I will be with your mouth, he says. That promise was not given to a gifted man, it was given to a called man. This is what you are about to become, Robert. A man called by Christ Jesus. The Lord has called you, and he will keep you. Preach Christ crucified, Robert, and him only, and you have preached enough.