1 Valley View Chapel May 26, 2013 Back to the Future, Part 2 Pastors Behaving Badly Malachi 2:1-9 Introduction Recalling his boyhood as Prince of Wales, the uncrowned King Edward VIII said: "When I was a boy and did something wrong, my father [King George V] would admonish me, saying, 'My dear boy, you must always remember who you are.' His father wanted him always to remember that he was the future King of England and should behave in a manner worthy of his standing. Unfortunately the Prince of Wales did not remember who he was. His reckless behavior brought disgrace to the monarchy and he abdicated the throne on December 11, 1936. The prophet Malachi delivered a similar message to the priests of his day, some 450 years before Christ: Remember who you are. Like King Edward VIII, they too failed to heed the warning. Because the priests of Israel behaved badly, they were disgraced and the nation suffered under the Lord s hand of discipline. Like priests, like people. Malachi 2:1-9 is the record of how spiritual shepherds who fail in their responsibilities can bring down God s judgment on those who look to them for leadership. Malachi 2:1-2, 5-9 "Listen, you priests this command is for you! 2 Listen to me and make up your minds to honor my name," says the Lord of Heaven's Armies, "or I will bring a terrible curse against you. I will curse even the blessings you receive. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you have not taken my warning to heart. 5 "The purpose of my covenant with the Levites was to bring life and peace, and that is what I gave them. This required reverence from them, and they greatly revered me and stood in awe of my name. 6 They passed on to the people the truth of the instructions they received from me. They did not lie or cheat; they walked with me, living good and righteous lives, and they turned many from lives of sin. 7 "The words of a priest's lips should preserve knowledge of God, and people should go to him for instruction, for the priest is the messenger of the Lord of Heaven's Armies. 8 But you priests have left God's paths. Your instructions have caused many to stumble into sin. You have corrupted the covenant I made with the Levites," says the Lord of Heaven's Armies. 9 "So I have made you despised and humiliated in the eyes of all the people. For you have not obeyed me but have shown favoritism in the way you carry out my instructions." (NLT) 25 years ago I attended a leadership conference led by John Maxwell. He said something that has stayed with me ever since: People rarely rise above the spiritual level of their leaders. If you are a leader on any level - at home, at work, at church, at school or in the community you would do well to remember that important principle. The speed of the leader is the speed of the team. That s not just a catchy slogan. It s a truth that has been authenticated over and over again in every area of life. Leadership Failure
2 The Old Testament scholar Walter Kaiser said: The chief end of the priests of Malachi s day was as it is of the Christian ministry and Christian walk today to glorify God. And God through his messenger Malachi clearly set forth how they were to glorify God. Regrettably, the priests failed miserably. Both they and those they were supposed to lead suffered because of their carelessness and incompetence. James in his epistle issued a serious warning to spiritual leaders: Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. James 3:1 (NIV) If pastors and priests are going to be judged more strictly then what is the standard? True Instruction (v.6a) In Malachi 2:5-9 we re told clearly what God expects from his pastors. At or near the top of the list is true instruction. We re told in verse 6, True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. True and false can only be determined on the basis of an objective standard. And that standard is the revealed Word of God which is found in the Book of God, the Holy Bible. The believers at Berea new this which is why we re told in Acts 17:11 that they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. (NIV) One critical test to apply to any spiritual teacher is this: Does his teaching agree with Scripture? I saw a commercial recently in which someone said: Well, if it s on the Internet it must be true. Most of us know that there s a lot of falsehood on the Internet. Just because a pastor or preacher holds a Bible in his hands and says something doesn t make it true. We have a responsibility to hold everything we hear up to the light of truth the Word of God. Diane Butler Bass in an article that appeared in Newsweek magazine observed: In many churches, Scripture is more like the clay from which you make [a] statue. It s something you can rework and play with. This goes on far more than we d like to think even in evangelical circles. Let me give a few examples. The first is a doctrine called Open Theism. Open theists maintain that God does not know what a given human being will do until he acts. They refer to such human actions as possibilities. Because God remains unaware of human possibilities, the future remains open in His mind. This means that rather than God knowing all things, He is in the process of learning new things as they take place. This is a significant redefinition of the classical doctrine of God s omniscience. The open theist s view of omniscience is that God has complete knowledge of the past and the present, but not the future. Open theism is an assault on the omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence of God. The second is the Love Wins doctrine. Rob Bell said in a recent interview that the traditional teaching about hell is why a lot of people in our culture want nothing to do with the Christian faith and have no interest in church." Rob Bell s espousal of universal
3 salvation is absolutely contrary to what the Bible teaches. The Bereans would have taken away his preaching license. The third is the Christus Victor interpretation of the death of Christ. The Christus Victor model has much to commend it. The idea is this: Christ is victor. Christ in his death and resurrection overcame over the hostile powers that hold humanity in subjection, those powers variously understood as the devil, sin, the law, and death. Christ died to give the world victory over everything evil that opposes us. It had nothing to do with dying in our place as our substitute. Proponents claim that the picture of a wrathful Father having his anger appeased by the death of his Son is wrong. Yet the Bible repeatedly and most clearly declares that Jesus Christ died as the world s substitute. Jesus himself affirmed this truth in Mark 10:45, For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (NIV) The word for is anti (an-tee ) in Greek and means instead of or in the place of. 2450 years ago pastors were not dispensing true instruction. The same thing is happening today in many so-called evangelical, Bible-believing churches. Walk with God The second quality of a trustworthy spiritual leader is that he walks with God. The prophet in describing a credible spiritual leader said in verse 6, He walked with me in peace and uprightness. It is not enough for a pastor or priest to give out true instruction. Of course that s important but it s not enough to authenticate his claims to spiritual leadership. He has to live-out what he s teaching and he can only live-it-out if he walks with God. We re told in Genesis 5:22, 24 that Enoch walked with God. Genesis 6:9 said that Noah walked with God. To walk with God means to have an authentic, personal, real relationship with God. It means that their true teaching flows out of true living. What they say about God is reflected in their life experience. The Dutch politician and theologian Abraham Kuyper likened the human soul to the tabernacle in the Old Testament. You have an outer court, which is the public domain. That's where you work, where you shop, and where you go to school. You also have an inner court. This is the place where you invite family, friends, and people that you love deeply. You share a deeper level of your life in the inner court. But then inside the tabernacle way inside is the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies is a deeply private space that is shared only by you and God. No other human being can ever enter your Holy of Holies, but you are never alone there. That is the space for you and God.
4 If a pastor or priest doesn t spend time in the Holy of Holies alone with God, worshiping, adoring, listening, and learning then he may give out true instruction but it will lack power and passion. Public instruction that transforms lives flows only from a life that walks with God in private. One of my favorite preachers John Ortberg put it this way: "What kind of person am I becoming so that preaching is the outflow of a certain kind of life, and it comes out of me in a way that God wants it to come out? I should prepare my soul not just for a week of preaching, but for a life of preaching. In other words, a sermon worth hearing isn t composed in the six days between Sundays. It is composed over a lifetime of communion with God in the Holy of Holies. Matthew Henry, the 17 th -century English Presbyterian pastor, said: Nothing profanes the name of God more than the misconduct of those whose business it is to do honor to it. Pastoral misconduct begins when he marginalizes or forsakes his personal time of communion with God for it is there that the pastor receives strength, power, grace, inspiration and wisdom. A Burden for People What can we expect from a pastor who preaches the truth, lives the truth and communes with God in private? We re told at the end of Malachi 2:6. He will turn many from sin. Contrast this with the effect of bad pastors described in Malachi 2:8, But you have turned from the way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble. People often stumble because they can t see clearly. And the reason why people can t see clearly spiritually is because those who are teaching them are teaching lies and living lies. I remind you again of what John Maxwell once said: People rarely rise above the spiritual level of their leaders. Faithful pastors will encourage, enable and empower their congregations to turn many from sin because they re setting a good example or they will encourage, enable and empower their congregations to cause many to stumble in the darkness of false doctrine and unholy living because they re setting a bad example. This responsibility is not just confined to pastors. We all need to ask ourselves the question: Am I turning people from sin or am I causing people to stumble? Does my life reflect the beauty and grace of Jesus Christ? Am I making Jesus Christ look good to those who don t know much about him? Or am I misrepresenting Jesus and giving others the impression that holiness and obedience and worship don t mean very much? Rodney Smith, better known as Gypsy Smith, was called into evangelistic ministry at the age of 17 by William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army. Gypsy Smith preached the gospel around the world for 70 years until his death in 1947. He once said: There are 5 gospels, not 4 Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and YOU. Most people never read the first 4. They only read the 5 th. When people read my life or your life, what do they see? The life of someone who turns others from sin or the life of one who causes others to stumble on life s road?
5 Conclusion Suppose all of us this morning made a fresh commitment to learn and teach the truth; to walk with God in a dedicated time of personal communion with him every day; and if we saw as our responsibility to turn as many people from sin as we could. Do you think it would make a difference in our neighborhood, our workplace, our school, our health club, our kids sports teams, our church? We don t want our pastors to behave badly. But neither should any of us behave badly by living careless and indifferent lives when it comes to God s eternal truth. May we make a new commitment today and mean it. We will believe and teach the truth. We will walk with God. And we will turn someone from sin.