Collection › LCMS Convention Proceedings (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1959 · 44th Convention, San Francisco › Page 41
LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1959, Page 41

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

DOCTRINAL ESSAY 41

hood, a holy nation, God’s own people, the new Israel, they are not
to regard themselves as a kind of closed-membership organization
or secret society composed of God’s elite. They are not to be
a community living by themselves in isolation from the rest of the
world. They are rather to be God’s messengers, God’s angels, God’s
ambassadors, God’s apostles to all people in the world, ringing the
changes on the theme: “Unto you is born a Savior, Jesus Christ,
the Lord. He was crucified. He died. But God raised Him up
from the dead, and He lives forever. In Him God reconciled the
world to Himself. You, too, were reconciled to God through Christ.
Believe in Him, and you will be saved.” This is the greatest re-
sponsibility and task of the church and of every Christian. For
this we plan and pray and give and work: to proclaim throughout
the world through pastors, missionaries, over radio and TV, the
great and mighty acts of Him who called us out of darkness into
His marvelous light.

But Christians should not only glorify God, witness to the
Gospel and to Christ, be prepared at all times to give an account
of their faith, suffer for the truth, and proclaim to the world God’s
mighty acts for the salvation of man. They should also perpetuate
the teaching ministry of Jesus.

Jesus Himself taught. He was known as the “Teacher come
from God” who made explicit to His disciples the doctrine He
had received from the Father. Before He returned to the Father,
He commissioned His disciples to “teach them [the peoples of the
world] ... whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:20). Paul
in particular laid much stress on “teaching,” on communicating
to others Christian doctrine. Twice in his Epistles to Timothy he
calls himself “a preacher and an apostle, and a teacher” (1 Tim. 2:7;
2 Tim. 1:11). Luke records the charge brought against Paul when
Paul was seized in the temple after his return from his third
journey: “This is the man who is teaching men everywhere against
the people and the Law and this place” (Acts 21:28). The last
item mentioned by Luke in the Book of Acts regarding Paul’s
activity in Rome is that “Paul preached the kingdom of God and
taught about the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 28:31). In two of his
epistles, Paul specifically lists “teachers” among the gifts given by
the ascended Christ to His church. “God has appointed in the
church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers...” (1 Cor.
12:28). “And His gifts were that some should be apostles, some
prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the
equipment of the saints, for the work of ministry, for building
up the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:11, 12). We can therefore appreciate
Paul’s directives to Timothy: “Command and teach these things”
(1 Tim. 4:11); “Teach and urge these duties” (1 Tim.6:2); “Be