Warning to Leaders:  A Call to Faithful Ministry

Malachi 2:1-9

September 21, 2003 PM

 

Pastoral ministry or the eldership is not an equivalent of the Old Testament priesthood.  That office functioned to serve as the mediators between God and His people.  Priests stood between God's righteous wrath and the people's deserving judgment, offering atoning sacrifices to assuage God's wrath and interceding for the people.

 

But that office, as just described, ended at the cross - or better yet, that office is now borne by another who has perfectly atoned for our sins, satisfied God's judgment, and "ever lives to make intercession for the saints."  Obviously, I speak of Christ who offered one sacrifice for all time on our behalf and was Himself that very sacrifice for us.  Hebrews 10:10-14 explains this clearly.  Christ continues as our "great high priest" "over God's house (Hebrews 10:21), in which He faithfully intercedes for us (Hebrews 7:25). 

 

This is why we object so strongly to the Roman Catholic concept of the priesthood as mediators and the mass as a perpetual sacrifice.  Neither is validated by the New Testament or necessary in light of Christ's work.

 

However, the church as a whole is now given the priestly responsibilities of offering sacrifices and instruction.  But we do not offer bloody sacrifices, but those of praise and glory to our God.  And we proclaim the excellencies of Him that called us out of darkness into His marvelous light (I Peter 2:4-10).

 

Though not called priests, there is a clear parallel that pastors, elders, and teachers bear with the priests of Malachi's day - and that is the ministry of teaching and spiritual oversight.  Christ has entrusted the ongoing nurture and development of His Church to pastors, elders, and overseers that are to equip the saints to do the work of ministry.  John Piper was helpful to me in considering this idea and pointed out, "so this part of the priests' duties in Israel is continued in the elders of the New Testament church - they are responsible to teach and guide the church" ("The Curse of Priestly Failure," Malachi 2:1-9, November 8, 1987).

 

So the connection between Malachi's warning and our own day points particularly to those involved in the spiritual oversight of the church.  In a sense, I am preaching to myself and my fellow elders as I investigate this text.  But I'm also speaking to the whole church in two particular areas.  (1) You must seek to hold you pastors, elders, and teachers to the high standards of God's Word.  The calling of God affirmed by the church of shepherding God's flock cannot be undertaken casually.  (2)  But also, you must maintain these standards for those whom you will invest with shepherding responsibilities in the future.  Let's consider this passage under two headings:  How God can be dishonored by the ministry, and what God demands in the ministry.

 

I. How God Can Be Dishonored by the Ministry

 

The very ones that should have understood more of God's glory and pursued His honor were the very ones causing greatest dishonor.  I wish that was only an Old Testament problem, but it is a recurring scandal in our own day.  We've become wearied by the pages of press reports on sexual abuses by Catholic priests.  It seems that each week brings new revelations of sinful abuse.

 

We've been stunned by the Episcopal Church appointing a practicing homosexual as an Archbishop.  Clearly, the new birth and personal holiness have taken a backseat to the political correctness of accepting all manner of sinfully perverse lifestyles.  Thursday's local paper told of a youth minister that maintained pornographic videos and who kidnapped a 16 year old for those purposes.  We might say that at the heart of this is an unregenerate ministry.  And that may be the case in all of these.  However, we must never think that the ravaged of indwelling sin bypasses even those that are genuine in the work of ministry.  John Owen reminds us, "There is not the best saint in the world but if he should give over this duty [of daily mortifying sin], would fall into as many cursed sins as ever any did of his kind" (Works, vol. VI, 12). 

 

1.  The Problems at Hand

 

(1) Failure to listen to God's Word (v. 2)

 

"One great danger to the pastoral ministry is that the voice of God in Scripture may be drowned out by other voices" (Piper, "The Curse of Priestly Failure," Malachi 2:1-9, November 8, 1987, 5).

 

(2) Failure to center one's life and ministry on the glory of God (v. 2)

 

Honor = glory, e.g. Is the ministry just a job?  Is his preaching just an academic exercise?  Is instruction mere formality?  Or is there passion for God's glory exuding from the whole of his life and work?

 

(3) Failure to walk in the ways of God (v. 8a)

 

Paul told Timothy to give attention to his walk and doctrine (I Timothy 4:16), e.g. danger in Christian ministry of becoming professionals that merely talk the talk.  At college I wrote on a small green slip of paper the well-worn reminder, and taped it to my shelf at the desk.  "If you can't walk the walk, you don't talk the talk."

 

(4) Failure to teach rightly the truths of God's Word (v. 8b)

 

Piper points out that even more devastating to the church than the moral failure of the ministry is the neglect of truth.  "Far more devastating for the church long term is the doctrinal defection of thousands of pastors away from the authority and sufficiency of Scripture and away from Biblical truth" (ibid, 4).  E.g. I shudder to think of the effects among the present generation that say that they have not denied the authority of Scripture, but teach, preach, and organize their ministries and prosecute evangelistic enterprises as though the Scripture lacks sufficiency. 

 

(5) Failure to maintain the calling of God and the affirmation of the church (v. 8)

 

They had "corrupted the covenant of Levi."  No specific covenant is alluded to with Levi alone.  But it seems that the language points to the task given to the priestly tribe "of giving guidance through the Urim and Thummim, teaching and officiating in worship" (Baldwin, TOTC, 234).  There is reference made to a covenant with Levi in Jeremiah 33:20-21, so we have to assume that it was established in Israel's early history but we do not have all the details.  The emphasis in Jeremiah and here is that God does not break His covenant or fail in His covenant responsibilities.  But Levi or the priests had.  E.g. This is reminiscent of God's call upon the minister, and abrogating it to pursue self-centered motives. 

 

(6) Failure to proclaim God's Word without fear or favor (v. 9)

 

Here is the problem of partiality, playing to the crowd, appealing to those that can aggrandize the minister most.  E.g. Great temptation in ministry since speaking without favor might cost one a paycheck or position; yet this is God's demand.

 

2.  The Divine Response

 

(1) God causes their blessing (v.2)

 

Priests were to offer the Aaronic blessing (Numbers 6:22-27) but God reverses it.

 

(2) God rebukes their offspring (v. 3a)

 

The word can mean wither "descendant" and so childbearing is affected, or it means "seed" so that the tithe crops on which they depended would be affected by blight, drought, or catastrophe.

 

(3) God will dishonor them publicly (v. 3b)

 

The purity of priesthood would be defiled by their own defiled sacrifices.  Walk Kaiser says that a softened, modern way of saying this would be, "You're going to have egg on your face" (Kaiser 456).

 

(4) God will continue His work without them (v. 4)

 

They would be out of the picture and indeed that happened, but God's work would continue.  E.g. The church has survived centuries of scandalous leaders!

 

(5) God will cause them to be rejected by the people (v. 9a)

 

II. What God Demands in the Ministry

 

The issue of God's honor or glory is bound up in His demands upon the ministry.  How is He honored in the ministry?

 

1. True Instruction (vv. 6a, 7a)

 

This involves:

 

(1) Guarding the truth

 

Study, diligence to understand, applying truth, testing all things by the Word.  E.g. I know a Crichton ministry student who said he didn't like to read.  I told him he had better re-think ministry.  When I saw him this week, he told me of a biography he read in the summer.  "So you're enjoying reading?"  "Yes, I am!"

 

(2) Dispensing the truth

 

Instruction - expositional ministry.  Apt to teach.  Commit these things to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.  Preach the Word.

 

2.  True walk with God (vv. 6-7)

 

Both lips and lives latched faced to personal holiness. "The vigor, and power, and comfort of our spiritual life depends on the mortification of the deeds of the flesh" (John Owen, ibid, 9).  "...be killing sin or it will be killing you."

 

3. The shepherding ministry (vv. 6-7)

 

(1) Approachable as instructors in God's Word

 

Welcomed as God's messenger.

 

(2) Turning people away from sin in repentance and to God through Christ by faith.

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