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If God Pastors Me, Why Do I Need Pastors? · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: We're reading the Navigator's Bible Reading Plant together again this year,
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  Speaker 1: and we just wrapped up our first month of the
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  Speaker 1: new year with readings that included Psalm twenty three, Verses
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  Speaker 1: one to three and Matthew nine thirty six and Matthew
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  Speaker 1: ten six. David, a listener, is putting those three texts
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  Speaker 1: together and asking you this question, Pastor John, Hello, and
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  Speaker 1: thank you for this podcast. There seems to be a
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  Speaker 1: divine sovereign shepherd who can supply all our needs, and
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  Speaker 1: yet we still have need of a human shepherd. So
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  Speaker 1: how do these two tiers of shepherds work together? There's
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  Speaker 1: sort of the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want,
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  Speaker 1: but I still want. I still need a human shepherd too.
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  Speaker 1: God is a sufficient, all sovereign shepherd who is enough
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  Speaker 1: for me, and yet he is not enough for me.
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  Speaker 1: And of course I'm thinking here of the important role
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  Speaker 1: my pastor plays in my life. So how do you
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  Speaker 1: put those two tiers of shepherds together?
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  Speaker 2: How many ways can the diamond of God's glory be
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  Speaker 2: turned so that facet after facet of the diamond reflects
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  Speaker 2: more and more of His varied wisdom and strength and goodness.
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  Speaker 2: How many ways can you turn that diamond? And Ephesians
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  Speaker 2: three ten Paul says, through the church the manifold, the
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  Speaker 2: many sided wisdom of God is made known to the
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  Speaker 2: rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. So the way
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  Speaker 2: God has set up the Church, its people, its structure,
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  Speaker 2: its leaders, its gospel, its mission is designed to turn
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  Speaker 2: the diamond of God's glory and reveal side after side
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  Speaker 2: after side of the wisdom of God. Christ was made
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  Speaker 2: the head of the Church. And the Head is the
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  Speaker 2: great guide and the great supplier, provider, the great protector.
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  Speaker 2: And so Christ could have ruled him church is saints directly,
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  Speaker 2: right directly, with no intervening influences human or otherwise. He
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  Speaker 2: could communicate directly to every individual Christian and not have
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  Speaker 2: any leaders, and not have any of those saints minister
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  Speaker 2: to each other in any way lest they intrude upon
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  Speaker 2: the prerogative of the Head. He could have done it
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  Speaker 2: that way, so that the church would be made up
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  Speaker 2: of little individual points of light, isolated God word light,
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  Speaker 2: that have no relationship with each other and don't relate
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  Speaker 2: to any leaders at all. He could have done it
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  Speaker 2: that way. Why didn't he do it that way? Well,
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  Speaker 2: just on the basis of Ephesians three ten, we would say,
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  Speaker 2: because that way of ruling the church as the head,
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  Speaker 2: with no pastors, no shepherds, no leaders, no effective influence
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  Speaker 2: horizontally among them members would not be the wisest way
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  Speaker 2: to turn the diamond of God's glory in the church
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  Speaker 2: to show the many sided wisdom of God. That way
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  Speaker 2: of doing it would be defective. It wouldn't glorify the
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  Speaker 2: panorama of God's glory in the church as much as
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  Speaker 2: the way he actually did do it. When we read
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  Speaker 2: the Bible, we cannot escape the amazing impression that God
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  Speaker 2: loves to do things indirectly through human agents. It's everywhere.
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  Speaker 2: He created a world, and he created a church in
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  Speaker 2: which the decisive things concerning redemption happen not directly from God,
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  Speaker 2: but indirectly from God through people to people. It's everywhere.
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  Speaker 2: And therefore I conclude that, since God's passion is to
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  Speaker 2: magnify in the world the many faceted glory of His
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  Speaker 2: wisdom and grace and power, this way of doing it
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  Speaker 2: through human agents shepherds and sheep reveals more of his
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  Speaker 2: glory than if he did it directly and did not
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  Speaker 2: indirectly do it through people. So it's not just a
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  Speaker 2: question of why there are human shepherds Seasians four to eleven.
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  Speaker 2: When God is our shepherds, I'm twenty three and Christ
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  Speaker 2: is the good shepherd John ten eleven. The question is
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  Speaker 2: also why has He appointed that in the church we're
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  Speaker 2: all priests. All the sheep are priests like little many shepherds,
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  Speaker 2: And our salvation hangs insignificant measure on how we minister
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  Speaker 2: to each other, not just from the shepherds. For example,
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  Speaker 2: Hebrews three thirteen exhort one another every day so that
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  Speaker 2: nobody falls away. John fifteen twelve. Love one another Romans
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  Speaker 2: fifteen fourteen, instruct one another Galatians five thirteen, Serve one
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  Speaker 2: another Ephesians four thirty. Forgive one another Ephesians five twenty one.
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  Speaker 2: Submit to one another, for Thessalonians five point fifteen. Do
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  Speaker 2: good to one another Hebrews ten twenty four. Stir up
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  Speaker 2: one another to love and good works James five sixteen.
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  Speaker 2: Confess your sinto one another. Whoa God is really into
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  Speaker 2: doing his work through sheep. All of those human activities,
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  Speaker 2: from sheep to sheep, are designed by the chief shepherd
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  Speaker 2: to accomplish shepherding purposes of holiness and love and perseverance
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  Speaker 2: and ultimately salvation. Why did he set it up that way?
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  Speaker 2: The explicit answer turns up repeatedly in the Bible. When
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  Speaker 2: God's people, by God's power, do God's horizontal and relational work,
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  Speaker 2: more facets of the diamond of God's glory turn in
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  Speaker 2: the light and reflect more of Him to the world.
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  Speaker 2: Jesus said, for example, let your good deeds, in other words,
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  Speaker 2: this horizontal ministry. Let your good deeds be seen by others,
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  Speaker 2: so that people will glorify your Father in Heaven. God
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  Speaker 2: gets more glory when there's horizontal ministry done in the
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  Speaker 2: name of God by the power of God, for the
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  Speaker 2: glory of God. Paul said, receive one another as Christ
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  Speaker 2: received you, to the glory of God. He said, forgive
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  Speaker 2: one another as God in Christ forgave you. In other words,
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  Speaker 2: show by your relationships what kind of God you have
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  Speaker 2: turn the diamond. Let another facet of the diamond be
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  Speaker 2: seen by the way you forgive one another as God
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  Speaker 2: in Christ forgave you. Paul unpacked what he meant by
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  Speaker 2: putting on the new self, for example, by saying it
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  Speaker 2: was created after the image of its creator. In other words,
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  Speaker 2: the point of becoming new people in Christ as we
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  Speaker 2: relate to each other in the church, is to show
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  Speaker 2: more about what our creator is like. And Peter said
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  Speaker 2: that the use of spiritual gifts to one another in
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  Speaker 2: the church is a stewarding of the varied grace of God,
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  Speaker 2: the many sided, many colored, like the diamond grace of God.
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  Speaker 2: In other words, it's a turning of the diamond so
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  Speaker 2: that more and more facets of God's grace can be
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  Speaker 2: seen and glorified as we minister to one another with
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  Speaker 2: God given gifts. And the same thing can be said
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  Speaker 2: now about why God has appointed human leaders or shepherds,
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  Speaker 2: or pastors or elders in the church. When they do
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  Speaker 2: their work as they ought, as God's word teaches them
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  Speaker 2: to do it, they do it with joy he Brews
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  Speaker 2: thirteen seventeen. And so they show by the way they
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  Speaker 2: do their leading the preciousness of the one they serve.
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  Speaker 2: That's what their joy does. They do it with humility
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  Speaker 2: for Timothy three six, and show that they themselves are
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  Speaker 2: not the shepherd, but only happy under shepherds. They do
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  Speaker 2: it by cherishing and preserving and defending sound doctrine Titus
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  Speaker 2: one nine and show the value of the truth of
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  Speaker 2: the Gospel, and they do it worthy of imitation he
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  Speaker 2: Brews thirteen seven. And we all know that the only
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  Speaker 2: one ultimately worthy of imitation is Jesus, And yet he
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  Speaker 2: has appointed shepherds to be imitated as they imitate Christ.
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  Speaker 2: That's what turning the diamond means. And all of this
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  Speaker 2: is God's design, because when shepherds function that way, more
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  Speaker 2: facets of God's wisdom and grace are seen in the
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  Speaker 2: church than if there were no leaders. And the same
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  Speaker 2: thing is true not just because of the way the
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  Speaker 2: shepherds lead, but also because of the way the sheep follow.
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  Speaker 2: They're supposed to submit to the shepherds he Brews thirteen seventeen.
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  Speaker 2: And when they do that gladly, they show their contentment
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  Speaker 2: in Christ and what a good savior he is, and
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  Speaker 2: that they're happy with the way God has designed the
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  Speaker 2: church and reflect reflected his wisdom. And they learn from shepherds,
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  Speaker 2: because the shepherds are appointed to be teachers. And when
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  Speaker 2: the people eat the food that God provides through the
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  Speaker 2: shepherds and delight in God's word, it magnifies the wisdom
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  Speaker 2: of God. And when shepherds are loving their people as
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  Speaker 2: Christ love the Church, and the people are imitating that love.
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  Speaker 2: The beauty of the community reflects the wisdom and the
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  Speaker 2: grace of God. So it's all about the diamond. It's
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  Speaker 2: all about the way the facets of the diamond are turned.
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  Speaker 2: That's why God did it this way. So I think
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  Speaker 2: the answer throughout the Bible for why God accomplishes his
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  Speaker 2: purposes through human agents is that in the thousands and
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  Speaker 2: thousands of ways that those agents trust God and conform
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  Speaker 2: their lives to the good shepherd and love each other,
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  Speaker 2: more facets of the beauty of God's wisdom and grace
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  Speaker 2: and power are shown than if he did it another way.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, insightful. All those Hebrews thirteen mentions remind me of
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  Speaker 1: God's beautiful plan for the local church and reminds me
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  Speaker 1: of all the episodes we have recorded in the past
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  Speaker 1: on how to find a local church if that's relevant
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  Speaker 1: for you right now and trying to find a healthy
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  Speaker 1: local church in your area. See my index of those
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  Speaker 1: APJA episodes in the Ask Pastor John book on pages
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  Speaker 1: four seventeen to four twenty eight on how to find
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  Speaker 1: a healthy local church. Thank you, Pastor John, and thanks
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  Speaker 1: for joining us today. If you have a question to
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  Speaker 1: ask Pastor John, find a link to email us at
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  Speaker 1: askpastor John dot com. Well, Christian hedonism is not a theory,
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  Speaker 1: it's a life practice. It's a heart cry, a desire
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  Speaker 1: for more of God. And so it's no surprise that
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  Speaker 1: we get a lot of emails from people who want
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  Speaker 1: practical help here, like how do I become happier in God?
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  Speaker 1: What do I do to find it, to get it,
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  Speaker 1: to keep it? What kind of daily habits and practices
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  Speaker 1: will lead me deeper in my joy in God? All
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  Speaker 1: of those are great questions, and all of them are
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  Speaker 1: up next. A'm tonio Ranky, see you on Thursday.