In the name of the Father, Son + and Holy Spirit, Amen. The text for our consideration is these words from Paul’s first letter to Timothy the fourth chapter. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers (v. 16). This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Dear brother in Christ, Tyler Holt. Are you sure you really want to go through with this? You have purchased a house and are in the process of making it a home, but do you really want to enter the Office of the Holy Ministry? There is still time to back out and pursue a different career. Yes, it would change the plans for the good people of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church but the Lord will take care of them. He will take care of you and the rest of us too. Are you sure you want to continue?
A prophet as great and powerful as Isaiah had second thoughts. He saw the glory of the Lord fill the temple. He heard the eternal cry of the seraphim: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty! Heaven and earth are full of His glory (Isaiah 6:3). Isaiah’s sins overwhelmed him. He knew that he was a man of unclean lips and came from a people who were just like him. You see, good people of Our Redeemer, this man who stands before you today is just like you and me. He is a sinner through and through. Like us, he was born into it and is well-practiced in its art. Some of us who are older may know a few tricks that he doesn’t understand yet. In time, he will.
Every time that an heir of Adam comes into contact with the Lord, they have a deep feeling of inadequacy. Their sins are brought to the fore and they know intimately that they have no right to be in the presence of the Holy One of Israel. Just when Isaiah thought it was over a seraph goes to the brazier and removes a burning coal with tongs. The seraph flies directly to Isaiah and touches his lips with the glowing coal. Remarkable words are heard. “Behold this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, your sin atoned for” (Isaiah 6:7). Immediately Isaiah is transformed. Oh, he is still a sinner, but now a forgiven one. This makes all the difference. When God cleanses your sin, He remembers it no more. He frees you to be His child and heir. He even sends some as pastors to to other sinners. They speak of Jesus and how He made satisfaction for their sins and not only theirs but also the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:1).
Members and visitors to Our Redeemer, expect your pastor to bring you the good news of Jesus Christ. May your pastor determine to preach Christ crucified for you and all people (1 Corinthians 2:2). The Lord’s forgiveness prepared Isaiah for prophetic service. The same Lord promises to be the strength and sufficiency for Pastor Holt too. Isaiah quickly responds with a resounding yes to the call of the Lord. Scripture is silent on what he thought as the Lord presented to him the conditions of the call. Conditions were not good. Isaiah would preach and it would fall on deaf ears. People would see but never perceive what was being said. Their eyes would grow weary and they would be bored with the prophet’s message. The congregation would dwindle till only a tenth of the faithful remained. The prophet was to take heart because in that remnant was the holy seed that is Jesus.
Pastoral ministry in this second decade of the twenty-first century is filled with challenges. This is increasingly an age where people’s ears grow heavy and their eyes are blinded to the truth. Isaiah’s call was clear. He was to bring God’s Word to them, persistently and faithfully. The results were not in his hands, just as the results of Pastor Holt’s ministry are in God’s hands too. You see it is a terrible sign of judgment when the Lord’s Word is faithfully proclaimed but it falls on apathetic people who really couldn’t care one way or the other. Too many of our contemporaries are just like the folks to whom Isaiah preached. Sadly they seldom enter church, even for Christmas or Easter. The saddest is that many of them were baptized and confirmed. They tasted and saw that the Lord was good but their hearts are no longer sure or comforted by the Divine Word. Like the parable of the sower the seed has fallen on hard paths, or is being choked by weeds or withers because it is not well rooted. What are you to do?
Listen again to the words of the text. “Devote yourself to the public reading of the Scripture to exhortation, to teaching. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers” (1 Timothy 4:13, 15-16). We know from Holy Scripture that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17). Pastor Holt, sow the seed! Liberally and freely spread it abroad. The next time it may take root and bear fruit, thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown. Immerse yourself and your people in the Holy Scriptures. Use them to open every meeting, include the Lord’s Word in every visitation. Use every opportunity to preach the Word faithfully, in season and out of season. With great patience realize that the Lord is at work even when it seems nothing is happening. Jesus does not lie when He says, “Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it” (Luke 11:28).
A pastor’s work is essentially simple. He is literally to hand over God’s gifts to you, the people of God. He is to instruct both young and old in the Christian faith. He baptizes those in need of this blessed sacrament of initiation into the Church. He hears your confession of sins that you may be absolved. He prepares people that they may receive the body and blood of Jesus to their eternal good and temporal forgiveness. He is to be a man of the Word and to persist in these things. Why? It is a matter of your salvation and his.
The ultimate task of a pastor is to prepare people for heaven and the life of the world to come. Our time on this earth is around four score years; sometimes longer, sometimes shorter. For a believer in Jesus life in this world is the closest they will come to hell. For an unbeliever, life in this world is the closest they will come to heaven. God would have all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth who is Jesus Christ. Pastor Holt, give ‘em Jesus who is our light and our life. Persist in this for by it you will save both yourself and your hearers, Amen.
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