Some people think that you go to Bible college or seminary and you become a pastor. Let me ask you this, has God come to you and given you something that you did not have before? Has God given you a gift? Has God given you power to be able to carry out the work of a pastor?
Notice what Paul said, “…the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you” (Eph. 3:2). Too many men want to pronounce themselves as pastors, or as teachers. But let me tell you something, it’s a stewardship of God’s grace that’s given to men for the sake of others. And if you have been given such a stewardship, the others will recognize that you have such a stewardship of God’s grace given to you. We need to grasp that it is “by the will of God” that there are any pastors or teachers in the church.
Excerpt taken from the full sermon, “Listen to Jesus, But Not Paul?“
Notice this: Verse 3 "How the mystery was made known to me by revelation." You see how Paul got it? By revelation. Revelation of who? By God. You keep reading here. Go to verse 5: "Which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it is has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit." You keep going. Verse 7: "Of this gospel I was made a minister." Not, I took it upon myself to become one. Men, you men who are interested in the ministry, you need to grasp this. Jesus Christ gave gifts to men. Not only apostles, but prophets, evangelists, pastor-teacher. They're all in the same category. They are given to men. Paul says, I have a ministry, but I did not dream this up. I have a revelation. I have something that was given to me. A stewardship of God's grace. It was given to me. You keep reading here in Ephesians 3. "Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace which was given me by the working of His power, to me, though I'm the very least of all the saints. This grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." It was given to me. Men, you need to recognize something. Pastor-teacher is in the same category with apostle, in the sense that it is a gift that is given of Christ. Some people have this idea that you go to Bible college or you go to seminary and you become one. Some people have this idea that because I want to become one... Let me ask you this: Has God come to you and given you something that you did not have before? Has God entrusted you with a stewardship? Has God given you a ministry? Has God revealed something to you? Has God given you gift? Has God given you power to be able to carry this out? Notice what Paul said. Paul said that this had been given to him. The stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you. It was not given to Paul for the sake of his own glory. It was not given to Paul for the sake of his own financial situation. It was not given to him so that people would think he was a great preacher, so they would bow down before him, so they would cherish his words as being unique and authoritative in the sense that they came from him. What he is saying is, don't look at me as deriving this. Don't look at me as being the author of this. Don't. It's a stewardship of God's grace. I'm least than the least of the saints out here. I'm nothing. But God has entrusted me with this. Men, if you do not have something that is by the will of God - how do you know it's by the will of God? Because God came from outside you and gave you something that you didn't have before that. Too many men want to pronounce themselves as pastors. They want to pronounce themselves as teachers. But let me tell you something. It's a stewardship of God's grace that's given to men for the sake of others. And if you've been given such a stewardship, the others will recognize that you have such a stewardship of God's grace given to you. Why? Because it's for them. It's for their advantage. It's for their upbuilding. And if nobody's built up, nobody's advantaged, nobody's helped, nobody gleans grace from what you're doing, brethren, the last thing the church needs is self-pronounced anything. It doesn't matter what it is. What you see here is a Christianity that starts with God. It is by the will of God. And it's no different in the church. What we don't want to do is say oh, he's an apostle. Yeah, you go to Ephesians 4 and you will find that apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers are put in the same category. They come from Jesus Christ. It's the same in the church today as it was way back then years ago when Jesus Christ chose twelve men to follow Him. Brethren, God is still the God who is sovereign in the church. It's by the will of God that there is an apostle and it is by the will of God that there is any kind of teacher or preacher or anybody gifted for any ministry. This comes from God. He is sovereign in the church. We need to grasp this. Men, you need to grasp it. Don't enter any ministry if you just have some inclination, some self-serving desire to do so. If God has not broken into your life from the outside, come to you and made you what you weren't before, gifted you in a way you were not gifted before. Given you a ministry. The grace of God being given to you, poured out on your life, poured out on your gift, poured out on your character; where you know God has come. This is real Christianity. This is the Christianity of Scripture. It is God coming in, it is God stepping in, it is God doing something. That's what we need to recognize.
