I was thinking last night about why being a pastor is the best job in the world.
It is not the pay or the applause. It is not the easy hours or the comfortable conversations. It is not the thirsty hearts waiting for drops of truth to fall from my lips.
The reason that being a pastor is the best job in the world is that I get to be intimate with the gospel.
The gospel is my life, both personally and as a pastor. It is the power of God unto salvation, for me and for those who hear me preach that are called of God. For my own heart it is the source of forgiveness, the fountainhead of joy, and the force of increasing righteousness. For my work it is the root of confidence, the underwriting for every message, and the warranty on eternal triumph.
I’d quit if there was no gospel. No holy order is as important as preaching and living and rehearsing and loving the gospel. My life is defined by this good news.
I’m so excited about the gospel this morning because I was so broken-hearted last night. I was visiting a group of students, role-playing a pagan for them to practice sharing the gospel. It took over ten minutes for the word sin to surface. It took another twenty before there was any mention of the cross. I was the most interested pagan these students will probably ever meet, and yet I’m not sure I could have been saved even if I’d wanted to. The collaborative gospel presentation of seven could not have been more disappointing.
Perhaps this is why our worship is so weak: we don’t know the gospel. Undoubtedly this is why our lives are so ungodly. Our affections are at low tide, our fruit has gone rotten and stinks, and our witness to the dying world is non-existent because the gospel is not drilled into us. Spurgeon put it this way:
Want of depth, want of sincerity, want of reality in religion — this is the want of our times. Want of an eye to God in religion, lack of sincere dealing with one’s own soul, neglect of using the lancet with our hearts, neglect of the search warrant which God gives out against sin, carelessness concerning living upon Christ; much reading about Him, much talking about Him but too little feeding upon His flesh, and drinking of His blood — these are the causes of tottering professions and baseless hopes. (quoted in Hard to Believe, p. 114)
The good news, however, is that the gospel knows this apathy and has the power to overcome it. The gospel knows our love for sin, the flesh, and the world and purposes to redirect our hearts to Him. We must pray for our students, we must press the gospel home to each one of them, and we must always be prepared to give an answer. That’s our job, and there is no better job in the world!
5 Comments
That is so, so good! I’ve been thinking a lot lately about witness and how I come across. I don’t want to be the nice girl. I want to be Jesus to others. They shouldn’t see me. They should see Christ. I am weak, He is strong. I need to be bold, expressing the truth of sin and the Cross. There is no more important matter to talk about than that.
Excellent post Sean. I was shocked about a year ago to find that most of my students could not articulate the gospel as well. It broke my heart that they didn’t seem to know the facts, but what ransacked my soul was the thought that they didn’t love the gospel, which was evident through their lack of acquaintance with it. I continue to pray that my students will love the gospel and be transformed by it. Fortunately I continue to see growth in that area but like you, there are often times when I am broken afresh by their apathy and I cry out to the Lord that He might break them with a genuine love for Christ and a genuine love for the gospel.
[euangelion - Gospel, good news] Most Christians remain unmoved with the conviction of the gospel. People walk through their life without giving thought to the weight of the gospel upon their hearts and minds. I pray that I would come to a greater love for and a application of the good news of Jesus Christ.
I think every student in our ministry needs to have a good sit down and wrestle with Scripture and find what the Gospel is, and why it should be so precious to us. If it were our greatest gift, which it is, but if we loved it so, then our lives would be so radiant with the love of Christ, that everyone would see, hear, know, and love Jesus Christ. Dead sinners would not be able to resist the almighty magnetic pull of the truth of God’s gospel. May God be praised for His overflowing mercy and grace to such a sinner as me and all the elect. Thank you my pastor, friend, brother, and fellow child of Christ. May God bless you and enable to continue with all boldness for His glory and all our good. The love of Jesus Christ is evident in you.
Thanks for posting all of this stuff. We have this same problem in our youth group in Ohio. It seems that so many times we try to treat the symptoms of the problem, rather than the problem itself. We try to teach the things that are wrong with other religions, or how to say no to drugs and alcohol, or not to lie, or obey your parents… But in this (although these things are important) we are trying to put a band-aid on a fatal gunshot wound. You wouldn’t do that in real life, why are we so willing to do that with their spiritual lives, which are so much more important. The deeper the understanding that we have of God, and the more intimately we understand Him and His attributes, the more motivated we are to live a life in pursuit of holiness. Anyway, sorry this is so long.
Oh yeah, I would like to disagree with you. I do believe that I have the greatest job in the world. I have been given the opportunity to partake in the raising of three children. Not only do I get to teach these kids daily things, I have been given the open door to share my faith with them. How great is that?!