Shepherds’ Conference Session 4 Notes

Session 4

Mark Dever

Colossians 1:24-ff

Paul points to the mystery which is Christ.

Real Christian faith is centered in the mystery, the open secret, the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Verse 24, Paul talks about his suffering or afflictions.

We share in Christ’s sufferings.

No, not his sacrificial, substitutionary sufferings.

True Christians have true Christian faith which centers on Christ.

Verse 29, we see labor mentioned.

Paul worked hard at preaching.

Paul shared that what he had been doing was for others.

You and your is repeated in the passage.

Pauls’ ministry: proclaim and present.

We proclaim the gospel to our hearers.

We long to present them to our Lord.

Christ’s afflictions were for the body.

Paul’s afflictions were for us too.

Why did he do this?

He did it for others.

Verse 25, Paul says that he is united to the Colossians in heart, spiritually, because they are united with him in Christ.

We are to encourage others.

Encourage or comfort each other.

Put heart in someone.

Encourage, put courage in someone.

Paul wanted the Colossians to be united in the truth.

Paul’s whole life was cruciform, he suffered in obedience to God on behalf of others.

Again, his suffering was not substitutionary. But he suffered for others’ good.

Pastoring includes proclaiming and working to present the people of god mature before the Lord.

Paul admonished and taught, not just a group, but individuals.

Had Paul closed his mouth, he may have seen his prison doors open.

He wanted to help others, even if that costed him.

Dever chose 1:28-29 as a life verse.

There is no reason for pride in success in ministry.

What we do we do for God’s glory and the good of the people.

It is God’s work.

We give ourselves for others.

Do you care more about how your sermon goes than how the people who heard your sermon are?

Acts 15:36, Let’s see how they are doing.

No metrics here.

No mission board can raise money based on this.

God cares about growth.

He told the animals to be fruitful and multiply.

He gave the same command to Adam and Eve.

The growth we see talked about in the NT and urged is not merely numerical.

It is a maturing and deepening faith.

Grow up into him who is the head.

In 2 Thessalonians 1:3, Paul thanks God for their growth.

God grows us and gets that credit.

Concern for that kind of growth is right and godly.

A lack of concern for that kind of growth is conversely ungodly.

Your job as a pastor is to be faithful in discipling and to create a culture of discipling in your church.

People naturally follow something and someone.

We are all disciples. The question is, “Of whom?”

Great Commission calls us to teach them to obey.

Discipling is more than preaching.

We live out the Christian life before others as basic discipleship.

In Jesus’ life we see the importance of both words and deeds.

What Dever does as a pastor to try to help others grow:

  1. Preaching – in your preaching, teach people the Bible.
  2. Prayer – He prays through the membership directory. He prays formally in the service, and even teaches people to pray through the regular, pastoral prayers.
  3. Membership – Hold people to faithfulness to the statement of faith and church covenant.
  4. Books – Give them away.
  5. Presence – Be around. Meet with people over lunch. Get people to go with you places.
  6. Conversation – Encourage people to have spiritual conversation.

7. Define – Discipling is trying to help other people to follow Christ. If you are not regularly trying to help people follow Jesus, I’m not sure what you mean when you say that you follow Jesus.

8. Include – Include people as you do ministry. Have others preach. Get feedback

9. Public services – Be thoughtful as you do things in the service. Let people know what you are doing and why you are doing what you are doing.

Shepherds Conference 2019 Session 3 Notes

Session 3

Austin Duncan

Faithful to Love

1 Corinthians 13

This passage is famous, often pulled out of context.

Corinth was a mess.

They could not have their services of worship in order without having love in order.

MacArthur: Every problem that our church has ever faced can be traced back to a lack of love.

Four parts

Verses 1-3

Love’s essential nature

Paul is going to show them a more excellent way—end of 12.

Note Paul made this personal.

“If I speak…” not “If we speak…”

This applies to the apostle.

Thus, it applies to all of us.

Paul is imagining a scenario where his words are totally perfect in any language.

If I speak perfectly, but without love, I’m a gong or a cymbal.

Perhaps the gongs and cymbals were a reference to the temple of Aphrodite in Corinth.

Lovelessness is an offensive thing, an offensive sound, regardless of the quality of your words.

Is lovelessness as annoying to you as all the other things that annoy you in life?

Paul next talks about prophetic powers.

Giftedness to fathom all mysteries

In a similar hyperbole, the picture is a person who understands absolutely every theological mystery.

Faith to move mountains is acting in power, faith that performs.

Verse 3, giving everything away and dying is worth nothing.

Moving mountains and preaching perfectly is nothing.

Paul is not saying our giftedness and the usefulness of our gifts is diminished if we do not love.

Paul is saying that there is no gain at all, our gifts are worthless, without love.

You should not be willing to undertake anything without love.

The true heart of a pastor is a heart that loves people, cares about people, and longs to take part in God’s transformation of people.

Love’s essential nature tells us that we must be men who are ready to lead with love.

Verse 4-ff

15 words that describe what love is like and what love does.

Two positives, eight negatives, then couplets

Verse 4 – Love’s leading qualities.

First qualities, patience and kindness.

Patience, makrothumia, is a word often used for God.

Love waits patiently.

We cannot suffer long if we think we deserve much.

Kindness seems simple.

It is more than refraining from cruelty.

Romans, Titus 3, both couple kindness with patience.

These are seen as motivating the heart of God to bring us to salvation.

We deserve the wrath and curse of God.

HE was patient with us not to destroy us immediately.

He was kind to us to give us his Son to forgive us and bring us into his family.

Pastors who lead with love should be patient and kind like the God who drew them to himself.

Verses 4-6 – Love’s greatest restraints

This is the opposite of our world which assumes that love is never restrained.

We see what love refuses to do.

Envy or boast

Love is restrained in the face of success, that of others or yourself.

How do you respond when someone else gets what you want?

Are you confident in God’s goodness and sovereignty as he apportions gifts?

Boasting addresses how you feel when you feel blessed.

Do you seek after compliments?

Must you have attention?

Remember that Jesus said that the religious leaders of his day loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.

Arrogant, not inflating its own importance

1 Corinthians 8:1 says that knowledge puffs up.

The arrogant man inflates his own importance.

Rude, ill-mannered impropriety

IT demeans others.

Shameful behavior is rude.

Selfish

Edwards: The spirit of Christian love is the opposite of a selfish spirit.

Not easily angered or easily provokes

Anger can be lovely or loveless in the Bible.

God is angry in the Bible, and that is beautiful.

The angry pastor falls hard.

Resentfulness, keeping a record of wrongs

Ministers who lead with love refuse to keep these.

Nice illustration of Abraham Lincoln and Stanton used here.

Resentful is an accounting term.

Do you mark down the wrongs of others?

Love has the ability to erase debts and even overlook offenses.

In marriage, if you were to try to parse every possibly offensive or questionable word or glance, you would never be able to show up at church.

Love is not joyful at wrongdoing.

Love can never be an excuse for sinful indulgence.

Verses 6-8 – Love’s Tenacious Power.

Look at the always statements here.

It always protects.

Love always trusts and does not lose faith.

Jesus believed what his Father could do with the disciples.

Love trusts God is not done.

Love always hopes and never runs out of hope.

WE know God can always accomplish something.

Love can have an optimistic posture toward the future knowing what God is able to accomplish.

God will prevail.

Chapter 13 and chapter 15 see together that God will prevail.

Without the gospel, this definition of love and its requirement in our life would be crushing.

WE can love because of what Jesus has already done at the cross.

Jesus is patient, kind.

Jesus never envies, boasts, etc.

WE only love at all because he first loved us.

Braggarts build themselves up.

The envious tear others down.

Loving people build others up.

1 Peter 1:5

Peter roots his loving letter to persecuted Christians in the fact that they have a love for the unseen Christ.

Shepherds Conference 2019 Session 2 Notes

Session 2

Sinclair Ferguson

Faithfulness and Holiness in the Life of the Minister

Hebrews 12

There is a stress on holiness in this book.

It seems that holiness has lost its position in the vocabulary of the life of gospel ministers.

Success and satisfaction are more often used.

Hebrews emphasizes faithfulness.

Hebrews emphasizes holding fast and being faithful.

Those to whom God is faithful become faithful.

Jesus is the revelation of the radiant glory of

God.

HE is the Creator and the heir of the cosmos

HE is also the one who made purification for sins.

Holiness is written all over Jesus’ ministry.

Moses wished all of the people could have God’s Spirit. HE saw that the Old Covenant could not accomplish all that he wanted.

Christ’s priestly ministry effects holiness.

Christ brings us an imputed holiness.

Imputed holiness is inseparable from an imparted holiness.

Paul says we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

And yet we are being sanctified.

Sanctification is an accomplished reality in our lives.

We do not aspire to be saints or holy ones; this is what we are.

But there is also an ongoing sanctifying of believers.

There is a progressive sanctification.

Eventually, all who have looked to Jesus for salvation will come to look like Jesus in sanctification and ultimate glorification.

The therefore in Hebrews 12:1 is great.

It is true in you and your ministry.

You should desire to be holy.

You should desire to be as holy as it is possible for a saved sinner to be.

It is a rare thing to hear a gospel minister described as holy.

  1. The absolute necessity of holiness in gospel ministers

Hebrews 12:10, Disciplines are for our good that we may share in holiness.

12:14, holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

Lack of holiness indicates that one has not received the grace of God.

We live in strange times when we see unusually gifted people falling horribly.

They have confused natural gifts with saving grace.

What do we substitute for real sanctification?

Do we substitute effectiveness in our gifts for actual sanctification?

If it is true that, without holiness, no one will see the Lord, then it is true that no minister of the gospel, without holiness, will ever see the Lord.

  1. Six Areas of Battle that are Vital in Gospel Ministers

Where do we stand strong under pressure?

Where do we battle?

  • Practices that may not be sinful, but which will not advance gospel in our lives

What might distract us?

Be careful with approving activities that you only say of them, “Well, there’s nothing wrong with it.”

Watch out for things that do you no gospel good.

Is there something that enslaves you?

Things that may be legitimate can actually become things that ensnare us in gospel ministry.

  • Sin that clings to us
  • Compromises to which the stresses of ministry may tempt us

The devil loves to exhaust our resources to resist.

He will tell you 99 things that re true to set you up for the 100th.

He will let you win the first set in order to wear you out in the match.

2 Cor. 4, Paul twice points out that we do not lose heart.

HE knows that is tempting.

The evil one is out to destroy our pursuit of faithfulness and holiness.

  • We find ourselves struggling with or even against divine providences

Might gospel ministers experience more painful providences than the generality of Christians?

Why do we experience these?

We are sore.

These humble us.

Laziness and pride are two great sins in the ministry.

If God is going to deal with men through you, he wants to deal with you so he can get through you to them.

You are the one who is most under your ministry of the word.

The congregation has no idea this is going on.

They do not understand how unclean you feel as you study the word and try to communicate it.

Often, we fight against this.

We forget that God has given us all that we need.

  • The danger of a root of bitterness

One of the most alarming danger signs in a minister of the gospel is, especially when he speaks of a person in a bigger ministry, the first thing to emerge is always negative.

I must come to the sweetness of Jesus Christ to dilute and cleanse my bitterness.

  • Sexual immorality

We need the expulsive power of a new affection.

Be careful compromising for short term gratification.

  1. The encouragements to holiness in gospel ministers

We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.

Not the point that they are watching you.

But their story of their faithfulness should encourage you toward holiness.

What God did in them he can do in you.

Keep on running and enduring as they did.

The Old Testament is for this.

It is there to say keep going.

OT saints say that you got what they never saw.

I have a heavenly Father who is training me as a son so that I may share his holiness.

He is remaking us in his image.

God wants to enable us to say Abba, Father.

What a risk.

People often think that God is somehow like the person through whom his word comes.

Therefore, we must pursue holiness.

There needs to be real integrity between the word that we preach and the atmosphere and spirit and love and devotion with which we communicate.

We now enjoy what the saints of old did not have access to.

We have the Spirit.

We have come to a heavenly city.

We have New Covenant access to Christ.

Paul believed, in 1 Cor 11, that angels were present at that church and Jesus was leading the people in worship and speaking through the preacher.

How amazing that we can go into the presence of God with his people and worship him.

We want Jesus to preach his word to his people through our lips.

That must make you want to be as holy as you could possibly be for sake of the people of God.

We want the people to see pastors who are more and more like the Lord Jesus.

IF what we do is really important, then let’s give ourselves entirely to holiness.

Shepherds Conference 2019 Session 1 Notes

Session 1

John MacArthur

Theme: Faithful

1 Corinthians 4

The Greek word for faithful, pistos, can mean having saving faith or a person’s faithfulness.

God is faithful.

Jesus is a faithful high priest.

God who promised is faithful.

God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

In Rev. 19, Jesus is called faithful and true.

Rev. 21:5 and 22:6, the word is faithful.

We are called to this same faithfulness.

Jesus often talked about faithful slaves or good and faithful servants.

Faithfulness in this passage is linked to humility.

Humility is the virtue that produces faithfulness.

Psalm 31, the Lord preserves the faithful and recompenses the proud.

Pride is an opposite of faithfulness.

Spurgeon says that we have a choice between being humble and being humbled.

Our world system does not desire or embrace humility.

The true man of God fights for humility.

He will sacrifice for his Lord before seeking the admiration of the crowd.

John the Baptist’s greatness was in the attitude that would make him say, “He must increase, and I must decrease.”

Paul said, “I am the least of the apostles…”

God gave Paul a thorn in the flesh to help him remain humble.

MacArthur suggests that the thorn in the flesh was demonically inspired people in Corinth who opposed the gospel.

Five elements that manifest the humility of Paul.

  1. He was content to be a lowly servant.

Verses 1-2

The word for servant here is the lowest servant form in the NT.

IT is a word used for slaves in the under-decks on a slave ship.

Paul presents himself as a third level galley slave.

Luke 1:1-ff

Luke also uses that term for apostles.

John 18:36, Jesus calls his disciples the same term—3rd level galley slaves.

In Acts, Jesus calls Paul this type of servant.

This type of slave is to do his master’s will without any interest in his own personal worth or dignity.

1 Cor. 3:5, Paul and Apollos are servants, not anything.

Always be content to be a lowly servant.

There is nothing glamorous about this kind of service.

Also, in verse 1, we are stewards, house managers.

A steward distributes goods and food to people in the household.

We feed the flock of God.

We are stewards of God.

Col. 1:25

We serve humbly, dispensing what is not even ours.

We dispense NT truth.

We are primarily NT preachers.

1 Tim. 6:20, guard what has been entrusted to you.

What is that?

The truth, the word of God

Guard that as a treasure that you distribute.

2 Tim. 1:13, guard the treasure.

  1. He was content to be judged by God.

Verse 3-ff

Preachers do something that no other people do.

We bring to people the good news.

A bond forms as you continue to feed people the word of God.

People will love the one who delivers the truth to them.

Paul says that it is a small thing, the smallest thing, that he be judged by humans.

Eph. 3:8 uses this word for less than the least.

Someone else judging me has absolutely no significance.

It could not mean less.

The Galatians called Paul a man-pleaser.

Then Paul told them that the one who preaches another gospel is to be damned.

Does that sound like a man-pleaser?

Human praise is the least significant verdict on any of our ministries.

Paul cannot even examine himself.

His acquittal of himself does not mean anything.

Prov. 21:2, the Lord weighs the heart.

My conscience may be clear, and that is a defense, but it is not a perfect defense. I am biased in my own favor.

The final verdict comes from heaven. The Lord is the one who examines me, verse 4.

Verse 5 stop the comparisons.

Stop trying to elevate one teacher above another.

When Christ comes, he will make the right judgment, the true judgment, the one that matters.

Praise for us will only come based on what matters and our heart.

  1. He was content to be equal with other servants.

Verse 6

Paul talked about himself and Apollos as an illustration.

Do not go too far into pride.

James reminds us that God opposes the proud.

1 Peter 5:5 tells us the same thing.

Scripture always exalts humility and debases pride.

Paul wants us to learn not to be proud when the Scripture forbids it.

In Philippians, Paul talked about people wanting to get ahead by stepping on him while he was in prison.

Paul says that he rejoices when Christ is preached, even when the motives of other preachers is false.

Verse 7

You are nothing.

You are a slave and steward.

There is no place for boasting or self-elevation.

Verse 8

Paul gets sarcastic.

You are filled and rich and kings.

You have it all.

You’ve arrived spiritually.

You did it without us.

Give yourself all the credit.

I wish you had made it to be kings.

I’d be happy to be brought along in your success.

But they are being brought back to reality.

How you react to the praises of others speaks of your pride or humility.

  1. He was content to suffer.

Verse 9

God has made a spectacle of Paul and the apostles.

Verse 10

More sarcasm

You are smart and we are dumb.

We are weak and without honor.

Our lives have all sorts of hardships’.

Verse 11

Lots of hardships.

Verse 12

Common laborers

We are content to be rejected.

We are content in being common.

We are content to have no honor.

  1. He was content to sacrifice his reputation.

Verse 12-ff

Paul met slander regularly.

We are scum of the earth.

We are the dregs.

We are the crud on the bottom.

Our message is foolish to the perishing.

We are not going to be popular in the world.

We cannot be popular with the non-Christian world.

We are not popular with unfaithful people who claim Christ.

And if we are not humble enough, God will humble us more.

1 Pet. 5:5, be clothed with humility.

James 4:10, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, and he will exalt you.