The Message Stays the Same

Why does a company change its message? For instance, when the Apple computer of the 1990s geared up a new campaign in the early 2000s, which demonstrated not the clunky desktop computers that had been the only and every computer of every thinking, hip, creative person, but a mobile computer, which heretofore had been the companion of many a businessman (or woman), used only for accounting and spreadsheeting and word processing, it was to accompany one of the most revolutionary devices. Ever. The iPod.

They had a new product, so they had to change their message. They had to change their marketing. Their new product demanded it.

Why does the Church require pastors to be trained? (See Titus 1:7-9)

I have been listening to an awful lot of bad pastors lately. Not just bad sermons, but bad pastors. They are leading people astray. They have awful doctrine. They have awful ideas. And they are risking leading their people straight to Hell, not because the name Jesus doesn't come up, but because the name of Jesus comes up to get them prosperity or power or health or miracles or what have you. THEY ARE SELLING A NEW PRODUCT. And I have to tell you, this product, this new message of Jesus, isn't going to do jack for you but send you to Hell because it's a different Jesus, it's not the Jesus of the Scriptures, it's not the Jesus who came to earth to die for sinners.

The Jesus that some pastors preach, this faker Jesus (like those that annoy me here or that grieve Chris Rosebrough (for the sake of the people who are fooled by them) on Fighting for the Faith and the guys at Issues, Etc. abhor), call people like me haters because they believe I don't like their innovation. They call people like me haters because I don't like their message. They call people like me haters because we don't believe in a Jesus that promises to make you a ruler over the temporal earth. They call people like me haters because we don't believe in a Jesus that comes to that individual pastor and gives them a vision for their "church." They call people like me haters because we don't believe in a Jesus that comes to tell you what to do now because he wants to "resurrect" you in this life so you can be a "conqueror for God."

They call people like me haters because we believe in a Jesus that IS offensive, because God bloodied Himself and died on a cursed tree, that IS offensive because He redeems sinners, that IS offensive because He condemns people who believe they can save themselves or that they can somehow merit His favor (which only comes through JESUS alone!).

The Church requires that we train pastors because JESUS IS NOT A NEW PRODUCT! The product of Jesus, if I can be so coarse, has never changed. The product is the message: Jesus comes only for sinners, of which I am chief, to redeem them from sin, death, and the devil, those consequences which the sinners have brought on themselves, giving Himself to death fully for all so that we might never die and gives us the promise of everlasting life with Him. This message has never experienced, and will never experience, change.

The Church requires that we train pastors because we are not called to innovate! We are not called to find new understandings of doctrine! Read Titus! It's the doctrine that the Apostles themselves taught that pastors are trained in, found clearly and simply in Scripture, and only that, nothing more, not even our own reason. That's why the Church trains pastors, we must teach what Jesus taught the Apostles to teach! Not that we apply our own reason to the ways and revelation of God. Not that Jesus demands you sacrifice your money so He can bless you. Not that Jesus demands we dumb things down so as to not teach parts of the Scriptures or Creeds. Not that Jesus can't work a miracle in your life because you're not ridiculous enough. This is, excuse me, horse poopy!

The Church requires that we train pastors because we are not selling anything new. Sometimes, depending on context, our "advertising" may need to change, like the language we speak to people or the hymnody with which we praise God. But the things that the Church has always and will always teach is that which the Apostles of Jesus Christ taught. It always will be.

The Church is not a company. The Church does NOT change its message. Our Jesus Christ is eternal, thus He never changes. That which is eternal never needs to be reimagined because it can't be! And the pastors the Church calls MUST be trained to know the doctrine of the Apostles and the eternality of Christ and His one message, which indeed never changes. A change to this doctrine is against Christ, it's true, and will lead people to Hell, not because the doctrine is so sacred, but rather that Christ Himself is the chief telos of that doctrine and anything else misses the mark.

As cool as Apple is, the Church is not Apple, and we won't be changing our message, we won't be compromising it. And if a church does indeed change its message from what is found in the Scriptures, then it's not part of the Church, but is being led astray by Satan, who is behind the ideas that are preached in that "church."

Podcast Sermon for September 18, 2011: A Hard Life

Sermon for September 18, 2011: A Hard Life

Grace and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text for this morning’s message comes from the Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, Chapter 1.  Allow me to read some key portions for you, where Paul is speaking about his suffering in bondage to the authorities:

 Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain…  Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again… For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

Dear Friends in Christ,

            There is a story of a boy who had a bad day.  First off, he went to sleep with gum in his mouth, which then got in his hair.  Then this boy tripped on his skateboard getting out of bed, soaked his sweater in the sink getting ready, and his brothers both found prizes in their cereal boxes but he found none.  To make it worse, on his school carpool, he got the hump in backseat, squeezed between warm bodies with no window to enjoy the ride, then his teacher judged his ability to engage in art and criticized it in front of the whole class.

Whose faith is it?

I find it interesting that some pastors push their expectation of faith onto people as if it were something that one could do, as if you could figure out how to make it a commodity.

What about the whole idea of each person having their own measure of faith? I think the problem is that it comes down to the idea of who owns faith? If you own the faith, then it was yours before you were even converted, and then, yes, people should be able to be molded into who a bad pastor wants them to be.

However, if your faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit (Oh yeah! Ephesians 2:8, right?), then it is up to Him what happens to your faith, the way it grows, the way it develops, the way it changes. Your faith can't be demanded to anything because it really isn't your faith. It's His.

Moreover, it is the faith that is assuaged by the good news of Jesus Christ. Why? Because it's His in the first place! It's a faith that, no matter the circumstance, is always able to be comforted. For this argument, it doesn't matter what you're going through, all that matters is whose faith it is.

So, the takeaway lesson: if a bad pastor is going to preach the Law to Christians, to demand that they do something the right way or at the right time or in whatever else they think is best, then he should just be avoided. His "gospel" is not the Gospel, it is not anything that helps a person grow, except in the eyes of that bad pastor. He doesn't care about how the Spirit actually works in his congregation, only that he sets the terms of how he wants the Holy Spirit to work (which won't ever, ever happen - the Holy Spirit is even more stubborn than I am, holding Himself only to the promises that Scripture tells us He makes).

Podcast Sermon for September 4, 2011: Jesus, Our Watchman

Sermon for September 4, 2011: Jesus, Our Watchman

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text this morning is from Ezekiel Chapter 33. Allow me to read the text again for you, starting at verse 1:

The word of the LORD came to me: "Son of man, speak to your people and say to them, If I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and make him their watchman, and if he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people, then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But if he had taken warning, he would have saved his life. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.

"So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

A Pastoral Approach

My name is Lewis Polzin and this is my blog. I don't intend it to be a place of great traffic, and I hope to never, ever focus on that.

I'm praying that this blog will serve as a place not only to upload sermons and sermon texts, but perhaps to explore some ideas and thoughts.

Any and all are welcome here and are welcome to comment and share their thoughts, though I reserve the right to censor posts and people if they become disrespectful. This blog is fully my own and does represent, in any way, official positions of any entity I may be associated with, unless otherwise stated in confession.

Welcome to A Pastoral Approach.