LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1981, Page 93

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

4 in Baptism. We are shareholders of the Lord’s
d the Lord’s resurrection. And we got this
ws through the ministry of the body of Christ,

ow ore God’s Holy Spirit brings people to faith,
nds that such people be the church in every sense
ignificant word. Those whom He calis into
e qualifies for service. We are truly “saved to
God. carries on His great program of winning
eeping through people. God equips His believing
ren, lay and clergy alike, with the spiritual skills,
ns, and resources necessary to carry out His plan.
vm the day when the apostles first appointed
sin Jerusalem to assist in the work of the church
e present time, the most Scripturally oriented
humanly successful manner of conducting the
1g business has been the exercise and practice of
‘“Srinciple: All Christians are priests unto God.
Such a concept spiritually challenges the laity of a
sn parish, area, or church body to an active program
ent enlistment and ability investment.
-et’s see again what God has said about this basic
cept of the Kingdom’s work in Rev. 1:5 and 6: “And
rm. Jesus Christ, who is the faithful Witness and the
irst Begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of
he earth. Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from
ursins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and
riests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and
minion forever and ever.”
P4_-2 Cor. 3:2 and 3 says, “You are our epistle written in
ur hearts, known and read of all men. Forasmuch as
u are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ...
tten by us, not with ink, but with the spirit of the
ving God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of
Rhe heart.” ,
- In I Peter 4:10, we read: “As every man has received
‘the gift, even so minister the same one to another as
good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”
« §o throughout the New Testament we find this basic
concept of the priesthood emphasized repeatedly and
forcefully. The royal priesthood is not a human con-
trivance, but a divine given. It is meant for every era.
-When Christ said that His followers would do greater
things after His departure from the earth, He referred
not only to the miracles of the apostolic age but also to
the opportunities we would enjoy in this latter time of
history to harness the immense reservoirs of power
surging within the hearts and minds of millions upon
millions of baptized believers, of Christians who live
within the framework of an unprecedented dynamic age
of power and rapid communication. ;
We are accustomed to saying, “Impression without
expression leads to repression.” This psychological
maxim can be aptly applied to Christian people in our
parishes. We have taught them to live like princes and
princesses in the Kingdom. We have preached that they
possess spiritual gifts. Now we must lead them to use
them, or they will doubt our words as insincere or lose
their “gifts” through disuse.
We have told them of the fantastic opportunities and

ESSAYS ON STEWARDSHIP 93

challenges of our age for sou! winning and soul keeping.
But when we do not enlist them and train them to carry
out this work, we passively imply that they are not “the
type” needed to carry out the program of our Lord.

In short, they become repressed Christians. The
names that the Lord has given us indicate what He
wants us to become. What He names us and calls us, He
enables us to be. He doesn’t just tack on names on the
outside, he enables us to become what He calls us. What
does He call us? He calls us stewards, managers of His
work, laborers, the salt of the earth, lights of the world,
witnesses, soldiers, disciples, and ambassadors.

In describing us in this way, the Lord has not only
given us names and titles, but in the very naming itself,
He has charged us with possibilities and has equipped
us for service. This term then, “Priest of God,” is a
highly functional term. And it expresses an extremely
practical concept. It describes the holy calling of people
wherever they are found in life... home life, social life,
vocational life, business, and so-called “church life.”

To the Christian priest of God, nothing is seen in a
divided sense of sacred and secular. In every sphere and
phase of life the “little Christ” is called upon to energize
and work, to edify and witness, be in fact and action,
what in reality he is by the grace and mercy of God.

Now in all of this it is to be remembered that
Christians as royal priests of God are performing their
services as private citizens in the Kingdom, and not as
public officials of the church. In a democracy, we say
that the government belongs to th? people, but the
people delegated and commit the public functions of
government to duly elected officials.

So also God’s Word distinguishes between the
individual Christian and the called pastor of the parish.
The individual Christian acts in his own name for God.
The “called” pastor of the Word acts under God in a
public manner in the name of and on behalf of the
congregation which has called him.

The office of the holy ministry is not contrivance of
man’s making, but an institution and a plan of God.
From earliest times, Christians were urged to gather
together and feast jointly on the Word and the sacra-
ments. Acts 2: “They continued steadfastly in the
apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of
bread, and in prayers” (v. 42).

In such public worship and activities, the called
ministers of the Word were to lead in exhorting,
admonishing, comforting, and feeding the entire flock
so they might grow unto the measure of the stature of
the fullness of Christ.

The pastor in this sense, the “minister,” then
“ministers to the ministers” —in their name and by the
virtue of their calling Him to perform these services. The
pastor seeks by every manner and means pleasing to
God to cause all of his people to be the church in every
sense of the word. He is to speak to them for God with the
authority of God. He is to speak with his people to God.
He seeks to guide, direct, and lead them in a program of
edifying and witnessing that will be to the Lord’s glory
in the salvation of souls.