Today I would like to discuss what may be a contentious issue for some readers but I encourage every reader to check out the scriptures mentioned in this post and if they have not been misquoted or misapplied, then let us all honour the Word of God above whatever we may have believed prior to reading this post. God bless your study and open His word to you.
It is a very noble and essential desire to choose to be persuaded by nothing except scripture illuminated by the lovely Holy Ghost. Indeed scripture is the only foundation upon which our every doctrine must be based because scripture testifies about Jesus (Jn 5:39). Such a disposition keeps us clear of laziness and deception. But who teach us us the scripture? It’s the men and women that God himself has given as gifts to His body. For this reason, some folks learn to build their faith and doctrines on what these Pastors have said rather than personal study of scriptures for themselves. This might be ok for new believers but this should not continue to be the case after being in Christ for a long time.
I have witnessed many ‘christian’ discussions among saints and it is common to hear ‘some’ use as a basis for their arguments, assertions like, “Bro/Sis so and so says…” or “my Pastor says…” Before I continue, let me set the record straight by saying I respect Pastors. For all you know I might be one of them
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As noble as such assertions like “my Pastor says…” may sound, that must never be the basis of your doctrinal beliefs or faith. Only one is worthy of such honor and His name is Jesus. I will explain what I mean shortly with scriptures.
Maturity demands that pattern of life that Jesus exhibited whiles on earth as attested to by scripture be the singular basis for all New Testament doctrine. Jesus is our example. A Christ-ian is a Christ disciple i.e. onedisciplined to live like Christ lived.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with listening to and being taught by Pastor(s). There is nothing wrong with even citing them in your conversation. God gave them to you for the purpose of shepherding you and 1Timothy 5:17 says that elders who direct the affairs of the church are well worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.
So it is perfectly Ok and good to listen to Pastors and to honor them doubly. What then is the problem I am trying to address? It is what we do after we have heard the sermons. Listening to Pastors alone is not sufficient for you to build your faith and doctrine upon. Pastors are not the foundation of God’s Church. The foundation of anything is always the head. The foundation of woman is man because she was taken out of man. The foundation of a home is the husband and likewise the foundation of God’s church is the head—Jesus Christ. If Pastors are not the foundation, what then is their purpose? That is a loaded question that I cannot cover for now but one of their job descriptions is to point saints to the head. Their job is to lift up the head because Jesus said, if He be lifted up, He will draw all men to himself (Jn 12:32).
Put differently, after you hear your Pastor teach or preach the Word, go and search out the scriptures for yourself, do your own bible study until your spirit captures that revelation taught by the Pastor for yourself. There is an element of that revelation we receive by impartation but that does not negate and excuse the believer from personal bible study at the feet of Jesus’ through His Spirit. Let us carefully consider the following scripture:
Acts 17:11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
What made the saints in Berea more noble than the saints in Thessalonica?
Two things made them more noble:
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they received the message with great eagerness
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they examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true
Most people pass the first condition of nobility. I am not sure all of us pass the second which is daily searching of the scriptures until we own the revelation taught for ourselves–until we see that what was taught is true.
This is an awesome piece of scripture because it shows us the heart of Paul. Some other Apostle, Prophet, Teacher, Evangelist or Pastor may have preferred that their hearers hear and obey without even examining or scrutinizing their messages to see if what they had taught is true. But Paul did not care. He called such behaviour noble. Brothers and sisters, for those of us who have not yet adopted this noble behaviour of eagerly receiving the Word plus searching the scriptures for ourselves, let us begin today. I respect Pastors who promoting independent study of the scriptures after the services and crusades. This is soo important if we will ever grow into mature sons of God.
Pastor’s or teachers can show us the way to Christ but we must seek Christ for ourselves earnestly. No one can seek God for us and we cannot parrot men of God forever without owning these revelations ourselves in our hearts. I believe this is one of the reasons why daily devotionals are given to saints—to teach saints how to study the word for themselves hence owning its riches and treasures for themselves. This is also why Pastors encourages saints to take notes in services. So they can revisit those scriptures at home and do what the Bereans did.
There is a sad portion of scripture which I wish for no one. It speaks about people who parrot ‘Apostles’ or use the name of Jesus but to no avail. Failure to own the revelation of scripture for themselves was what caused this situation.
Acts 19 13Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 14Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this.15[One day] the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” 16Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.
This story is about the sons of a high priest i.e. a Pastor in those days. They had seen God do extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched Paul were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them (Acts 19:11-12). After seeing this, they did not search out the scriptures to own this revelation for themselves or even get to know Jesus personally for themselves. Instead, they tried to cast out a demon “In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches. Of course this did not work and they ended up getting beat up. Quoting men of God is not enough. We must get to know the God of these men of God for ourselves personally through examining their sermons and through studying the scriptures.
WHO ARE YOU?
Let us learn from what the demon possessed man told these sons of the high priest. “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?”
We must know who we are in Christ experientially and personally and not through what someone said. Know who you are. That is why Pastor encourages us to say ‘I know who I am’. Know who you are from the scriptures as illuminated by the Holy Ghost. Know your identity in Christ.
Darkness already knows Jesus, Paul and maybe your Pastor but do they know you? If you yourself do not know you, how can someone else know you?
To be known is very simple. Get into the Word and allow the Word to get into you. That is the simple secret of spiritual authority.
Joh 15:7 If you live in Me [abide vitally united to Me] and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.
When his words abide in you, the Word of God will cause a metamorphosis inside you and you will begin to grow up into the fullness of the stature of Christ and look more and more like Jesus. When you abide in Him, they will know you because they know Him.
The summary of this plenty writing is this. Doubly honor your Pastors and leaders, eagerly receive the Word from them. But do not stop there. Search out the Word and become the Word. Own the Word for yourself in your heart. Capture the Word and let the Word capture you so that the foundation of your doctrine and faith will be the Word alone.
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