TEXT: 2 Timothy 4:1-5
PROPOSITION: All preachers are located.
QUESTION: What?
KEY WORD: Issues
Introduction:
Another issue (larger in the 1930s and 1940s) is a paid, located preacher.
Leroy Garret, primary spokesman for those who said that the church should engage in “mutual edification” and the evangelist should travel and teach the lost.
Today, sadly, many preachers have been relegated to the work of the denominational “pastor.”
The located preacher
The term – located preacher – means a preacher who lives, teaches, works and is supported in one place by one congregation.
In this sense I am a located preacher.
Does the NT allow, approve OR forbid a preacher to work for one congregation?
Terms we need to know:
Evangelist – spreader of good news, used of a missionary
Preacher – one who teaches, delivers sermons
Minister - one who serves, meets needs, helps in time of trouble
All 3 terms are used for the same men, work, office
One well-known advocate of mutual edification was Leroy Garrett. Garrett taught: "…The term evangelist is applied to those missionaries who like Philip the evangelist and Timothy traveled from place to place to bear glad tidings of Christ to unbelieving nations and individuals" (Dehoff-Garrett Debate, pg. 19, 20. Garrett quotes from Conybeare and Howson, Life and Epistles of St. Paul, Vol. 1, pg. 436).
There have also been modified views relative to the no located preacher position. One modified view is that a local church can have a located preacher providing there are no elders. Consider the teaching of Tolbert Fanning as stated by historian Earl West: "The logical teachers, and overseers of the church were the elders. The elders were but the elderly men in the church. They 'kept house for the Lord,' and edified the saints. All the teaching was done by this group…." (The Search for the Ancient Order, Vol. 1, pg. 342).
Their definitions
Preach – teach non-Christians – preach first principles to convert the lost
Evangelist – one who spreads good news to the lost
Minister – another term for elders who shepherd the local congregation
Are there examples of a located preacher in the NT? YES!
Philip – 25 years at Caesarea
Acts 8:40 But Philip was found at Azotus. And passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea.
Acts 21:8 On the next day we who were Paul’s companions departed and came to Caesarea, and entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him.
Timothy - Acts 17:14 – (at Berea) Then immediately the brethren sent Paul away, to go to the sea; but both Silas and Timothy remained there.
Titus – Titus 1:5 For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you.
Paul – 1.5 years at Corinth, 3 years at Ephesus
The mutual edification concept as set forth by some.
The NT teaches the idea of mutual edification
Ephesians 4:16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
Colossians 3:16a Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another
Garrett wrote, "Our preachers receive stipulated salaries which classes them as hirelings. They take gifts from the churches which is a direct violation of a Biblical principle, this pounding puts the preacher under obligation to the church and the salary seals his lips and perverts his words" (Bible Talk, February, 1953).
The hireling is one who "seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep and fleeth…," Jesus said (John 10:12).
Churches are expressly taught and are, therefore, under obligation to financially support those who faithfully teach the gospel
1 Corinthians 9:14 Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.
Philippians 4:15 Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving but you only
Churches are obligated both in regards to a man preaching to the lost and instructing the local church
The work of an evangelist
2 Timothy 4:1-5 1I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: 2Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 5But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
This passage is clear. The preaching includes both the lost and edification of the saved.
The direction of churches can largely be determined by the kind of preachers they use.
Soft preaching will result in apostasy.
The church desperately needs men who will courageously stand in the pulpit and, without compromise, tell people what they need to hear.
Polar bears in the pulpit will result in icicles in the pews.
Work of evangelist is a good, noble work.
Final Comments:
I have not said the church MUST have a local preacher. Many small congregations do not, or can not afford a located preacher.
There can be conceivable cases where one or all of the elders do the public teaching.
Perhaps it is a situation where the men carry out the work of public instruction.
Experience has told us that the local church will need a faithful man to serve as the local preacher to help it grow.
Such is an expedient and aid to the soundness of the local church.
From website: http://www.bibletruths.net/Archives/BTAR193.htm